Elvissey

by Jack Womack

Book Overview

At once a biting satire and a taut, fast-paced thriller, Elvissey is the story of Isabel and John, a troubled couple who voyage from the year 2033 to a strangely altered 1954. They are on a desperate mission to kidnap the young Elvis Presley and bring him back to the present day to serve as a ready-made cult leader. He proves, however, to be a reluctant messiah, and things do not work out quite as planned.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802134955
• ISBN13: 9780802134950
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Jack Womack Is Too Clever For His Own Good

This is a hard book to read, similar to Clockwork Orange. The language is so abstract that you have to continuously attempt to understand what is being said you know what is going on. I struggled though it and I liked it, but it could have been so much better if it had been simplified. Most people will give up.

Brilliant Look At A Sinister Media Culture Future

"Elvissey" is the first Jack Womack novel I have read; I eagerly look forward to reading the rest. Without a doubt, Womack is one of the most interesting writers to emerge out of science fiction since William Gibson hit the stage with his brilliant "Sprawl" short stories, culminating with his amazing "Cyberspace" trilogy of novels. He's certainly among the most bizarre stylists I've come across, echoing Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" with his own poetic usage of Dryco's newspeak. "Elvissey" is a brilliant satire of our own obsession with rock and roll stars and other transient entertainment celebrities. It is also a fascinating look at how a psychologically troubled couple from 2054 meet a homicidal Elvis Presley in an alternative 1954. Equally appealing is how Elvis struggles to cope with his new found fame in 2054, after learning he is regarded as a saint by millions of adoring fans. I strongly emphasized with Isabel "Iz" Bonney's struggle to hold onto her sanity as her health and her relationship with John, her psychotic husband, dissolve through the course of the novel. Anyone expecting another excursion into William Gibson's "Cyberspace" future may be disappointed; Womack isn't quite as visionary as Gibson, though his prose is just as poetic. Instead, prepare yourself for a startling fresh, unique view of what a media-dominated future might look like.

SHOULDN'T BE YOUR FIRST WOMACK

Elvissey is my second-least-favorite of the Dryco Chronicles series ( we'll see where it ranks after Going, Going, Gone hits my mailbox ), but not for the reasons you might expect. Allow me to explain. It was the first Jack Womack book I ever bought - the Gibson blurb on the back sold me - but I couldn't understand a word of it and shelved it. Somehow, a year later, I wound up with a used copy of Terraplane. I had to re-read the first chapter three times to make sense of the language, but eventually I put everything together; now it's probably my favorite. This led me to collect his other books from used bookstores, and then finally to tackle Elvissey. Elvissey is a remarkable achievement, particularly in its funhouse-mirror distortion of the the 1954 we knew on our planet. Having said that, it's also by far the most depressing of Womack's books. Which is saying something. The odyssey of pregnant security operative Isabel and her psychologically-unraveling husband John leads them to an American South where black people no longer exist and Elvis killed his mother. Their return to 2054, and subsequent attempted conversion of Elvis into a corporate messiah, is utterly heartbreaking. This is the Womack book which I've only re-read once. First-timers should read Womack's books in this order: Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Heathern, Ambient, Terraplane, Elvissey. You'll gradually come to understand everything about the strange future Womack paints, and recognize recurring characters. Enjoy the ride. You won't forget it.

Unbeatable!

"Elvissey" is a wacky, haunting (and occasionally terrifying) novel--one of most original and uniquely affecting novels I've ever read. Womack's vision is fresh, thoughtful and touched by an studious eye for the bizarre. The plot, in essence, is pretty straight-forward: members of a scheming, dystopian near-future travel back in time to kidnap Elvis Presley, who has achieved posthumous god-status. The protagonists try to present the future-shocked King to the people of the future to satiate their escalating craving for a messiah. But what does Elvis think of his role in this scheme? And is time-travel really as easy as a century's worth of science fiction would have us think? Womack's answers to these questions make "Elvissey" the delight it is. William Gibson has called this novel "a jarringly potent kick in the head." What else is there to say?

"The King" of kings...jumpsuit style

After reading this book I was pretty suprised to see it on sale at Graceland, since Womack makes the pre-stardom Elvis look pretty bad. But still, Womack's conception of a future so starved for meaning and so controlled by consumerism, that "Elvis" has been put on a corporate pedestal and wholly deified makes for very interesting reading. This book isn't really about Elvis, however, it's about Isabel, a woman from the future who goes back in time to retrieve the "real" Elvis. Women in the future still have to deal unresposive husbands, the glass ceiling and body trauma and Womack's handling of female characters is extremely strong. He also does well with language, as the denziens of the future speak in an English hybrid similar to the Newspeak of 1984. Elvissey is a very interesting read which doesn't quite deliver what you expect it to