Burning Rubber on the Perversion Highway

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	• Crooked Little Vein: A Novel Warren Ellis William Morrow, 2007 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 51 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Burning Rubber on the Perversion Highway

If you've read any of Warren Ellis' comics (Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Ministry of Space, Black Summer) you know to expect savage humor, sudden violence, and so many shocks to your sensibilities that you may have to go outside and walk around for a little while, at least until the edge wears off.

His debut novel, Crooked Little Vein, packs all the aforementioned into the family car for a road trip across America, then swerves wildly into oncoming traffic on the Perversion Highway.

At core the book is a hard-boiled private detective novel, with all the trappings. A down-on-his-luck Beta male for a protagonist, his sexy, smartass assistant, a sinister client in search of a valuable object, an endless stream of heavies for our man to hassle with. It's all here, strung out on designer drugs (or whatever you have) and all tekked-out for the 21st century.

Mike McGill is a burnt-out PI who is hired by the White House chief of staff (who likes to mainline heroin while watching the Fashion Channel) to find the back-up copy of the Constitution, an artifact that could instantly change America to the black and white Ward and June Cleaver ideal. No freaks, no drugs, no crimes that can't be solved with a punch in the mouth. Sex is strictly missionary position.

He tracks the book across the nation, encountering first-hand the New Depravity that has blossomed in the wake of the Internet. Along the way he questions whether or not a document so powerful should be handed over to any government, particularly this one.

Profane, hilarious, and mind-blowingly twisted, Crooked Little Vein is not for the squeamish, but if you haven't had a good laugh all summer you should get this book today. Recommended.

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Warren Ellis at his Transgressive Best

Comic book shock-jock Warren Ellis appears to have glanced over Irvine Welsh's body of work and decided he could freak people out better than that if he moved over to straight prose. Or perhaps he had some story ideas (I'm thinking particularly of a subculture of people who inject saline solution in parts of the body you probably wouldn't think of injecting anything into) that not even the popular Mr. Ellis could find artists iron-stomached enough to draw. Whatever the reason Ellis turned to novels, his is the most auspicious prose debut from a comic-book writer I've read yet.

Crooked Little Vein is a detective novel crossed with a road movie, in which long-suffering loser detective Mike McGill traipses through the seedy underbelly of the United States in search of a book the President's chief of staff believes is the magical Second Constitution of the United States, to be used only in case of emergency. McGill's search is Ellis's excuse to parade his prosaic protagonist before a series of weirdoes and deviants - but not just for our amusement. Between jokes, Ellis also argues that weirdoes and deviants are part of what makes America great, and, in a repeated theme, that you can hardly call them "underground" or "non-mainstream" when anyone with a computer can find out as much about them as an initiate into their mysteries. Ellis's pitch for tolerance will stretch your mind no matter how tolerant you think you are, I'll wager.

But the moral of Crooked Little Vein does not overpower the book, which is mostly a transgressive travelogue designed to test the bounds of one's sense of humor and gag reflex. Ellis's comic-book fans will find him in his best form since Transmetropolitan and will be pleased to know his skills work well in pure prose. And, though I imagine a number of readers will find the humor and situations too extreme, I figure since Irvine Welsh's humanistic gross-outs find readers, Ellis will find plenty of new fans with Crooked Little Vein.

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A Solid Read

It's been a while since I've gotten to read a novel, and I'm glad that I decided to break my unfortunate streak on this one.

The first sentence grabbed me and just wouldn't let go. I was hooked after that and hated to put it down those few times that I had to. I couldn't get to sleep the day that I got it; so, I decided to crack into it. Then, I REALLY couldn't sleep! I got 110 pages in before I finally went to bed. Then I finished it off the next night.

I love the first-person telling of the story. The one-liner chapters are genius. You really get to know Michael McGill, and he's not a bad guy.

Sure, it probably won't win any sort of esteemed literary awards, though it is well written, but it's just darn good fun! I highly recommend it for some entertaining reading!

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Missing something...

Gibson wrote Crooked Little Vein as if for a graphic novel; however, there aren't any graphics. This is a picture of perverted America, meant to be fun, but comes off a little 'cartoonish'.

Not just a funny book writer

Warren Ellis has made a name for himself with writing top notch material such as Transmetropolitan, Switchblade Honey, and other works. In his first novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, he gives us a tale that at times resembles some of his more interesting and entertaining musings he sends from the pub but fleshed out and developed. The result is a book that is funny and entertaining and while maybe not as deep as some people like has something to say.

Warren gives us a road trip of America showing just glimpses of some of the subcultures that have thrived in the 21's century. Michael McGill and Trix are interesting characters that are the reader's guides for the sureal and at times touching journey they embark upon.

Many are going tp focus on certain aspects of the book from the godzilla bukkake to the eccentric Texas family and miss out on the delightful story. Part mystery, part musing on today's world, this litle gem of a book is a fun, thoughtful, and entertaining read.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11

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