Getting It in the Head: Stories

by Mike McCormack

Book Overview

The acclaimed debut from the author of Booker-listed Solar Bones is a dark, uncanny collection of stunning breadth and audacity. In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805053719
• ISBN13: 9780805053715
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Dark, Grotesque, and Nicely Executed

A postmodern orgy of lust, sacrilege, and murder: this is the world painted by a talented young writer Mike McCormack. I liked this book, because the human element is never lost, despite the nearly ubiquitous and sometimes graphic description of atrocities or grotesque situations. This is McCormack's first book, and it reads like an auspicious start. In brutal detail, McCormack gives us his account of the tortures of the young soul.

Get it in the head

I devour these short story books and this is one of the better ones I've read. Look for more stuff by McCormack.

Poe/Whitman/Lovecraft, all in one book.

The first story, "Gospel of Knives" just grabs you with its Lovecraftian (is that a word?) atmosphere. "Estrogen" is like something Walt Whitman might have written (for the *way* it's written, not the subject matter). "Thomas Crumlish" reads like something from Poe. And that's just three of the stories. I love this book.

Hip,dark,totally twisted, yet also very human.

I don't know what it was that made me pick up this disturbing and funny book, but it was like a flash of dark light from the moment I began reading the first story. From the weird, and painful (to read) "Thomas Crumlesh", to the moving "Reach of Love", McCormack shows a twisted talent that could be compared to David Lynch. The title story is a funny, human, yet ultimately tragic and bloody portrayal of madness, fear, disgust and sibling rivalry. Mike McCormack is a writer who deserves more recognition, and I hope he gets it. Part Ian McEwan, part Edgar Allan Poe, with a little bit of Will Self thrown in for good measure, "Getting it in the Head" is one of the best debuts - indeed best books - that I have read in ages. I can hardly wait for "Crowe's Requiem", his first novel, due out in June.

Grotesque,funny,sad,macabre.......superb!!!

Upon reading this book you will wonder at the genius of the man and try and figure out what sort of mind can produce such a wide range of ideas and be so brilliant at putting it into words. You will be disgusted by,humoured by and in awe of McCormacks genius when you've read his first work.