Going Bovine

Just before dying Alonso Quixano recovers his reason and addresses his family and friends from his deathbed, “I was mad, and now I am sane; I was Don Quixote of La Mancha, and now I am, as I have said, Alonso Quixano the Good. May my repentance and sincerity return me to the esteem your graces once had for me...” Alonso was fifty years old when too much reading—day and night he consumed books of chivalry—and too little sleep deprived him of his reason and he decided to become a knight errant.

Cameron Smith is only sixteen when his study of Don Quixote for the state mandated SPEW (State Prescribed Educational Worthiness) test—Did I mention that Cameron goes to high school in Texas?—is rudely interrupted. His muscles begin to show more twitch uncontrollably; he collapses in class, after punching a classmate and insulting the teacher. He is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In animals it’s known as mad cow disease. His brain is deteriorating and he will lose control of his muscles and be subject to dementia and delusions. A gang of eight-foot high fire giants have already chased him, and when he tries to flee he finds the way blocked by, a “Big Dude. Black armor glistening like oil. Spiked Helmet, steel visor. Sword. The light bounces off the sword in arcs and hurts my eyes. Sword.”

But all is not frightening or hopeless. In the hospital he is attended by a nurse named Glory, and awakes to meet one of his classmates in the bed next to his, “Paul Ingacio Gonzales, but everyone calls me Gonzo.” Gonzo is a champion gamer and a bit of a hypochondriac, but he shares Cameron’s love of science fiction movies. Cameron also meets someone that he’s glimpsed briefly before. He wakes up to find her standing at the end of his bed. As he describes her, “I take in the torn fishnets, plaid mini-kilt, shiny riveted breastplate with leather straps at the sides… Her wings are a crazy black-and-white-checkered pattern, like they’ve been spray-painted at a body shop to look like hipster sneakers.” Did I mention that her hair is pink?

He blinks his eyes to make the hallucination go away, but she doesn’t. Then she introduces herself as Dulcie, eats the chocolate pudding from his hospital tray, and tries to enlist him in a mission to save the world and maybe himself by tracking down Dr. X, whose travel between dimensions has opened this universe up to forces of dark energy, including the ones now consuming Cameron’s brain. He tells her this is the most random thing he’s ever heard. She tells him that he has to take Gonzo with him because their fates are connected. He counters, “There’s no such thing as fate.” To which she replies, “Except for random fate.” And he figures, it’s better than just sitting in the hospital bed and waiting.

Alonso Quixano’s quest ends with his death. Will Cameron’s quest take him beyond? Did I mention the yard gnome that’s really a Norse god? show less

Opening Line of the book: "The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World. I'm sixteen now, so you can imagine that's left me with quite a few days of major suckage."

If that line does not bring at least a smirk to your face, don't bother reading this book. If it does, you will love it.

The other reviews have done a good job of exploring the undercurrent of this book, but what is missing from these descriptions is what exists on the dust jacket - it's a dark comedy. As my wife (incorrectly) pointed out, I am the only one who could find humor in someone with Mad Cow's Disease. The book is laugh out loud funny in a very irreverant way (there is the typical "teen" language, situations, hijinks, etc.), but show more every once in a while you're brought up short by the fact that this kid has a serious disease. The author does an excellent job balancing the fact that you are laughing WITH Cameron and not AT him.

A very enjoyable read. show less

I'm still not quite sure how to react to this book...except to say that it shook something deep inside me, as the best books do.

Cameron Smith is slouching through life. He just wants everything any normal, nerdy, under-the-radar high school guy wants. But then he starts having weird visions...and learns that his brain is slowly deteriorating from mad-cow disease. He thinks that's the end...until a pink-haired punk angel shows up in the hospital urging him to find a long-lost quantum physicist to cure him and save the world in the bargain. Cameron thinks, "What the hell?" and accepts.

And so he's off on a road trip of bizarre proportions, with a germaphobic/hypochondriac dwarf and later a yard gnome who is possibly a Norse god. He will show more encounter fire giants, scientists that believe in parallel worlds, a happiness cult, a wild Florida teen party, Disney World, a world-traveling Inuit band, a mythical jazz musician, evil snow globe dealers, and so much else. Cameron's voice is spot-on flawless, the chapter title headings are brilliant, the humor is smart, crude, emotional, and altogether perfect.

In a way, it's a book of purest insanity. It is, as one critic commented, a modern, darkly brilliant "Phantom Tollbooth" meets "Catcher in the Rye." Everything stands for something else. Nothing is as it seems. People and places and events all revolve into a gloriously perfect puzzle of life, mind, reality, and the unknown. What is really happening? What is the purpose of Cameron's journey? What is there to live for? What is life anyway? It's a book that's unafraid to ask you the deepest, most brain-melting questions, and then provide possible answers that are the most beautifully perfect kind of madness. This is a book where fate is random and chaos creates meaning, where nothing is what it seems and yet everything falls together in a way that makes sense because it doesn't make sense. It's very, very hard to describe. All I know is that it may have been the most philosophical, metaphysical, crazy novel I've ever read. show less

Going Bovine
By Libba Bray
After reading The Diviners, I wanted more from this author and this was available from the library in audio. I am so glad I found it! What a gem of a book! It has wit, action, a cross country adventure with a skinny terminal ill boy, a teenage death obsessed dwarf, and a talking garden gnome. I shouldn't leave out the punk rock looking winged messenger that helps Cameron on his journey to find Dr X.
See, Cameron has Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which is like Mad Cow only the human version. As an ICU nurse I have only seen one case in all my years in nursing. The doctors at the time told us this is rare and most doctors and nurses will never deal with a case like this.
Well, Cam's punk rock angel came to his hospital show more and convinced him to go on an adventure to save himself and the world. The whole book is clever, touching, humorous, magical, and sad, yet hopeful.
This is definitely one of my favorite books. show less

Cameron Smith is an ordinary misfit teenager until he starts seeing weird, fiery visions, which he's told are symptoms of the inevitably fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob (aka mad cow) disease. He is confined the hospital as the disease progresses, but from there he finds himself embarking on a strange, hallucinatory road trip/quest featuring powerful music, quantum mechanics, bad teen television, snow globes and Disney World. He's accompanied by a hypochondriac dwarf, a lawn gnome who is also a Norse God, and, occasionally, a pink-haired angel.

It's a rather strange book, but an entertaining one: breezily written, clever, and more layered than it first appears to be. While Cameron's journey may be surreal and purportedly random, it's got its own show more dreamlike logic that works surprisingly well, and if things sometimes get a little wacky, they never actually feel silly, if that distinction makes any sense. I'm left feeling a bit bemused by it in the end, but in a good way. show less

Summary: Cameron Smith is your average loser. Stuck between his strict, serious father, ineffectual and anxious mother, and pretty, popular twin sister, Cameron's biggest ambition is occasionally getting high in the high school fourth-floor bathroom just to make it through the day. That is, until he finds out that he's got Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease - otherwise known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease - which is incurable, and invariably fatal. He's been having visions of a fiery apocalypse, and he receives a message from Dulci, an angel with pink hair and combat boots, that the two phenomena are somehow related. Cameron must set out on a quest - accompanied by Gonzo, a hypochondriac dwarf - to find the mysterious show more Dr. X, who may be able to not only stop the end of the world, but also cure Cameron's disease. As Gonzo and Cameron travel from Texas to Florida, they come across a legendary jazz musician, the happiest cult ever, a conglomerate of snowglobe manufacturers, an ancient and belligerent Norse god in the form of a garden gnome, a televised spring break beach house, some insane theoretical physicists, and the dark and frightful Wizard of Reckoning, each of which will have their part to play as the end of days approaches.

Review: I'm going to put this right up front, so the folks who are skimming this review will still see it: Going Bovine was an absolutely beautiful work of fiction. It's rare to find a book that can make you both laugh and cry so hard - oftentimes within the same paragraph.

I started this book with no foreknowledge of its contents other than the cover art (a shifty-looking cow holding a yard gnome), and my familiarity with Libba Bray's previous books, which were female-centric historical fantasy. So, I'll admit I was somewhat surprised when it turned out that going bovine was a) set in modern times, and b) narrated by a boy, who was c) an obnoxious slacker pothead, and d) swore a lot (although not unrealistically.) Then he starts seeing visions of an impending apocalypse, and it looks like an punk-rock angel is going to be involved somehow, and I got really confused. But once they explain about the CJD, everything snapped into place, and I was able to sit back and just enjoy the rest of the ride.

And man, what a ride it was. Libba Bray manages to turn what could have been a complete downer of a topic into a totally hilarious roadtrip tale (loosely based on Don Quixote, although having read the one is by no means a prerequisite for enjoying the other). Actually, it's even better than that, because even when you're laughing your head off at the antics of the characters, you never quite forget the serious and beautiful and poignant undercurrent running throughout. Although this book is aimed at young adults, the message of the book is applicable to all ages, and it's one that I think everyone needs to hear occasionally. The writing manages to get the point across without beating the reader over the head with it, while all the while remaining true to Cameron's teenaged-boy voice, and seamlessly blending humor and pathos and sweetness and pain and joy and mortality.

One of the main complaints that I've heard leveled against this book is that it's too long. Objectively, yes, it's a long book. Cameron and Gonzo's adventures are all over the place - literally and figuratively - incorporating all sorts of wacky randomness that I could see getting tedious if you weren't involved in the story. Personally, though, I never felt like the story started dragging - or if it did, I was laughing too hard to notice. And the really great thing was that every minor escapade and every bit player and every seemingly random detail had its part to play somewhere else in the story, and the whole thing was woven together so intricately as to create these wonderful subtle patterns - and that these patterns themselves were part of the story, and of the message.

The only complaint I had about this book was that "what was really going on" was pretty obvious from at least halfway through, if not before. I kept hoping for some kind of additional twist that never came, and for that reason, I'm docking it half a star. But, at the same time, I'm happier with a straightforward - if rather predictable - explanation of events than I would have been with a surprising twist ending that didn't fit solidly with the rest of the story. And, even though I suspected all along where the story was going, when the climax finally came, I was still sitting with both hands pressed over my mouth, tears in my eyes, totally absorbed by the story. Can't ask for much more than that. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: People who are extremely offended by teenagers swearing, smoking pot, or thinking about sex may want to steer clear... but they'd be missing out. I can happily recommend this book to just about everyone else, but particularly to fans of John Green's novels, and those who like books that can make them laugh and cry and think - all at the same time. show less

Going Bovine, a rare slipstream fantasy, is quite a trip. Cameron Smith hasn't had much of a life, but he's got a wicked tongue on him. When he falls sick with, of all the ridiculous fatal diseases in the world, mad cow disease, the punk angel of his dreams comes to his aid and sends him on a quest so he can live.

Both hysterical and profane, it might be difficult as a teacher to recommend this to a kid. I read a passage aloud to my summer school class. Then one boy raised his hand and asked "why does he swear so much?" I'd picked a milder passage at the Buddha Burger, and had skipped over a bit that was too adult for read-aloud. When I answered it was because Cameron was an angry person, and I'd edited the passage while reading it, I show more could tell half my audience couldn't wait to get their hands on the book.

So, just leave this around and pretend you don't want the kids to read it. It will hit the banned book lists eventually, but that won't stop it. The kids might learn some new terms for masturbation, and a few Spanish swear words, but they might enjoy themselves and find some new ways to think about life too while they are at it. show less