Kornwolf
by Tristan Egolf
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Description
Tristan Egolf's new novel is a book about the return of an old curse - the Kornwolf, a ferocious werewolf whose nocturnal rampaging becomes increasingly impossible to ignore. Kornwolf takes the reader for a good old-fashioned romp in the stubble - a journey through the slums and honky tundra of rural Pennsylvania, where nothing quite passes for good or bad, sublime or dismal, discrete or brash. And then the monotony breaks. Something - a freak of creation - is running amok in the fields. To show more solve the mystery, three generations of prodigal sons - a writer and hometown boy who swore he'd never come back to Penn's Woods; a middle-aged former pugilist who runs a decrepit boxing gym; and a misfit, mute, beaten-down Amish boy - are brought together by the light of a blue moon, in a town called Blue Ball. On one level this is a masterfully orchestrated, hilarious, and compelling take on the classic horror yarn, on another, Kornwolf is a social satire of suburban sprawl, closed minds, and all manners and varieties of self-satisfaction - Amish, civilian, or... other - in the best tradition of Tom Robbins and George Saunders. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
If you read only one book about Amish werewolves this year, make it Kornwolf, by Tristan Egolf. This sounds flippant, of course, but Kornwolf is really shooting for being more than just another monster tale. It’s about belonging and destiny, written in whimsical, often witty prose.
Sadly, the young author took his own life last year. The problem with publishing a book posthumously is that it complicates the editing process. Parts of this book would have benefited from more background research, for example, and a few ends are left uncomfortably loose. Some chapters lose their focus, and the ending will likely frustrate many readers.
Still, Kornwolf is a fun read. In his too-short life the author did meet with some critical success, and show more seems likely to be remembered as a cult favorite for some time. show less
Sadly, the young author took his own life last year. The problem with publishing a book posthumously is that it complicates the editing process. Parts of this book would have benefited from more background research, for example, and a few ends are left uncomfortably loose. Some chapters lose their focus, and the ending will likely frustrate many readers.
Still, Kornwolf is a fun read. In his too-short life the author did meet with some critical success, and show more seems likely to be remembered as a cult favorite for some time. show less
This book was so twisted and wacky that I couldn't stop reading it. When a big city reporter returns to small town life and starts looking for news stuff gets weird, Boxing, Mennonites, redneck police, and some of the mostly darkly realized scenes depicting contemporary rural life that I have ever read.
What do you get when you give the nice Amish boy punk rock? Werewolves. And also boxing. Good in a crazy sort of way.
Sur la sauvagerie humaine, dans un style animal !!!
Feb 23, 2010French
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Author Information
8 Works 726 Members
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Gallimard, Folio (5109)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Kornwolf
- Original publication date
- 2006
- People/Characters
- Owen Brynmor; Ephriam Bontrager; Jack Stumpf
- Dedication
- For Emmanuel Augustus -- Long live the underdog.
- First words
- ...tearing through bull-thistle, jimsonweed, supplejack -- brittle with mid-autumn coming of frost -- and of pulsating crimson, appendages thwarted and stumbling, slam into fallen timber, as worm-ridden slick with organic dec... (show all)ay -- to meandering blindly through goldenod, inkberry, sheep laurel, bladdernut, Solomon's seal -- a prickling rash of woodland nettles -- cries emanating from lurch of within, as of burning in flame now, at once underfoot -- down embankment and plunging headlong into watercress, chilly with runoff from fertilized fields, and of crippling thirst satiated in excess -- then up again, scrambling, mud on the incline, a jagged escarpment, then over to stillness...
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Once on the road, with a jump on the gun and his mojo in form, he cold outrun these honkies...
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 171
- Popularity
- 191,459
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.56)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
