On Monday morning I finished reading “Bad Monkey” by Matt Ruff. This was the third book of mine and David’s Mini Brew and Book Club. We have an elimination process we go through when choosing a book, and this was the first book that was one of my nominations.
Thanks to Amazon.Com and Publishers Weekly, here is a rundown on the plot from their review:
In this clever SF thriller from Ruff, almost everyone is a bad monkey of some kind, but only Jane Charlotte is a self-confessed member of The Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons. Or is she? In a series of sessions with a psychotherapist in the Las Vegas County Jail nut wing, Jane tells the story of her early life in San Francisco and her assimilation into the Bad Monkeys, an organization devoted to fighting evil. Crazy or sane, Jane is still a murderer, whether she used a weapon like the NC gun, which kills someone using Natural Causes, or more prosaic weaponry. Still, nothing is quite what it seems as Jane’s initial story of tracking a serial killer janitor comes under scrutiny and the initial facts about her brother, Phil, get turned on their head. At times the twists are enough to give the reader whiplash. Ruff’s expert characterization of Jane and agile manipulation of layers of reality ground the novel and make it more than just a Philip K. Dick rip-off.
The review above lists this as a sci-fi novel. Oh those genres! It is a good mix of genres actually. Sure, I can see why one would label this as sci-fi, because we are dealing with technology that doesn’t exist, but why must it be labeled as such then? Mystery is actually the biggest “genre” on display here. Given with a good dose of satire, or humor, or both, it is many things in many different ways.
Like my previous experience with a novel by Ruff, the prose is not flowery. It’s to the point. He has obvious skill in writing a story, but no flexing of “thesaurus chops” here. It works even better here then in the other book of his I read, given that most of the book is told from first person perspective, and Jane is hardly one to speak as if highly school in literature or English.
Matt Ruff
There are two mysteries going on at the same time. The mystery of why Jane did what she did, and who is behind everything, meaning “the organization” that runs the Bad Monkeys, and the mystery of Jane’s identity. Who exactly is she? is something that I am sure all readers of this book will be asking many times.
The description/review mentions that there are various plot twists, which there are. Half of them though come in the final 30 pages. Those were the hardest to understand at times. Just when I thought I knew what was going on, something would happen that would contradict that line of thinking. For the finish of the book, it gave it an ending that may leave some thinking it was too clean. Some others might think that those last 30 pages were the best of the book. I felt neither, just thinking that it was a good finish to an already good and entertaining novel.
Though Jane is well written out, I think there could have been more questioning from inside of her. It was there, especially given the nature of her relationship with her brother, but I think more would have helped. I know that part of the reason why it wasn’t there was for dramatic effect for further plot twists though.
Overall a very entertaining novel. And one that I think many people who are fans of different genres would appreciate. Also, kudos to Ruff for trying something different with this novel. Given the descriptions of his other two novels that I have not read yet, it seems that he makes a concerted effort to write something different every time out. Good for him! And so far he’s batting 2-for-2 with me.
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