The Man of Maybe Half-A-Dozen Faces

by Ray Vukcevich

With two men already dead, strangled by printer cables, and a beautiful woman begging him for help, Skylight Howells is drawn into a dangerous, bizarre mystery. Original.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312246528
• ISBN13: 9780312246525
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

very unique, really entertaining, and well-written

This is an incredibly ingenious and quite funny novel. It's one of my favorites. Its uniqueness would probably be appealing to many. I've read quite a bit of critically acclaimed science fiction over the years (including Maureen McHugh's 'The Lincoln Train', 'China Mountain Zhang', and 'Nekropolis', as well as Amitav Ghosh's 'The Calcutta Chromosome') and enjoyed this novel just as much, and possibly more, than those, which are pretty impressive but usually not as inventive! It's also really refreshing to discover some science fiction with a sense of humor, since much of the field tends to be rather "doom and gloom" or horror-themed.

Douglas Adams meets, um, Ray Vukcevich

Really funny book that deserves to be on the shelf of all the Dirk Gently fans out there. One man: six identities = great fun -- and a really well-equipped private eye. If you wondered about the passions of documentationalists (or tap-dancers!), this will reaveal all. Vukcevich is a premiere modern surrealist, with one eye on the punchline, and one foot dangling off the wire. Read everything he's written. With any luck, there'll be a sequel to this...!

Quirky fun

Ray Vukcevich's fiction is so off the wall it's astonishing. Hilarious, outrageous, ingenious fun.

A winner!

This book contains some of the weirdest, wackiest, cops, crooks and gumshoes you will ever meet. Vukcevich populates his vision of Eugene, Oregon, with characters you can't ignore. I can't say this is a book you can't put down, because you do - you want to savor the gems he presents to you before moving on.My only complaint? It was over way too soon. I am now waiting for the further adventures of Howells, et al. In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with Mr. Vukcevich's short fiction.

Good-natured and absorbing read

On the face of it (or the dust jacket) this might easily have turned into a "gimmick" book, what with tap-dancing twelve-step programs, multiple personalities, and eboards providing real-time commentary on events as they unfold. Vukcevich avoids that trap, however. The technical underpinnings of his novel are flawless, and each and every potential "gimmick" fully supports its piece of the plot mechanics. Nothing is thrown away here, nothing is wasted, and it all comes together in the end without straining credulity or over-burdening one's suspension of disbelief.I haven't had so much fun with a novel since I read Daniel Pinkwater's books about the Snark-out Boys.