Foop!

by Chris Genoa

Meet Joe, the ill-fated tour guide at the center of a story that beings with the death of Abraham Lincoln, at Joe's hands. There are strange happenings going on at Dactyl, Inc., the world's first and only time travel tourism company. So strange that Joe, a tour guide, is promoted to the new position of Chief of Probes. His first probe: find out who's been traveling back in time and torturing his boss in rather disturbing ways. Joe finds himself catapulted from his dull life into a surreal journey where a blind hog-tying monkey is one of the sanest creatures he meets. Traveling through a past where the only thing that changes the present is death, while dealing with the fabric of space-time slowly unraveling, Joe stumbles into the middle of events that threaten both the Earth's future and past.

Genres: Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Humor, Time Travel, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comedy

300 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Chris Genoa is the author of Foop! (2005, Eraserhead Press), Lick Your Neighbor (2010, Eraserhead Press), and The Monkey & the Barrel (2011).

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

First novel from some nutjob who likes to wear bear suits in his author photos. It's from a small press, so there are some typos (but what book doesn't have typos these days?), but dear Lord is this guy funny. I think he may also be borderline insane, but he manages to keep it together just enough to write one hell of a funny book. Fans of Palahniuk, Hunter Thompson, Augusten Burroughs, and probably Douglas Adams (because of the comedic sci-fi'ish elements) should dig Foop!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This being a first novel I was super impressed. It did have quite a few typos, but almost everything does nowadays it seems like. The only author that has even come close to equaling the hilarity of Douglas Adams. It was so refreshing to read a so called humorous book that actually made me laugh. Reminded me quite a bit of Rudy Rucker, especially his book, Master Of Space And Time.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and would love to read more from this author.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this isn’t a graphic novel, there are a few pages with drawings on them, and the writing does in some ways remind me of some graphic novels I’ve read. The plot events are bizarre, and the theme nihilistic. That said, Chris Genoa is a master of the flip comment or thought, and there being no reason not to, it comes true. His first-person narrator Joe is an egotistical jerk with little impulse control, whose thoughts often run towards sex, and the hopelessness of achieving it. I was highly amused, although the point seems to mostly be pointlessness.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a crazy, loopy, surreal book. I ran across it quite by chance, perusing the shelves at a local community college library, and it was only after checking it out that I saw the cover blurb by a favorite writer of mine, Christopher Moore, that probably would have clinched the deal if I hadn't already been hooked.

Foop! was published by a local printing house, Eraserhead Press (though that site is now redirecting toward something called "Bizarro Central" that I'm not sure I like), and definitely shows signs of being a post-Millennium small press product in aspects of its binding, paper and font choices.

It's also... not just badly proofread, but aggressively badly proofread, as if the amiable but dim narrator's voice required Genoa to pick the wrong homophone every time - the use of "Principal" instead of "Principle," "affect" for "effect" and the ubiquitous Internetism "to" for "too" are just a few of the frequent solecisms. That kind of sloppiness normally turns me right off, but... in this case it almost seemed intentional, like the repeated intrusions of boom mike shadows in the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading.

And it doesn't hurt that the book is freakin' hilarious. Take this instance of bystander dialogue, which occurs in (as if it matters) a bingo hall, where the next number ball has gotten stuck and Our Hero, as the youngest man in the room, feels called upon to do something to set it right:

"Son, you gotta poke it."
"Don't listen to him! You gotta tap it. Nice and easy like."
"Poke it. Poke it, son. A good stiff poke."
"Oh he doesn't know what he's doing, someone go up there and do it for him."
"Any idiot can tap."
"Well that's true, but he ain't gonna tap now is he. He's a-gonna poke."
"Like hell he is."
"What about my shoe?"
"Oh Lord, here we go again."
"Does anybody require the services of my shoe?"
"What the hell good is a shoe going to do?"
"Lots of good. It's pointy. Good for pokin' or tappin'."
"Like hell it is."
"Lord, guide that boy's hand to do the right thing."
"I think he heard you."
"Who? The Lord?"
"No. The boy."
"My God, he probably has this whole place bugged."

Genoa has the gift of being able to throw the unexpected at a reader and make it stick (like monkey feces? Maybe not - but those do figure in the book as well). It's a worthwhile talent, not entirely perfect but definitely worth checking out.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

UGH

[Karianne Power · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so friggen weird that I actually loved it. This guy's got quite the imagination. It was pretty funny too. Laughed out loud a few times. Worth the read.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Foop! starts off on a strong note, but it too convinced of its own wit to be anything more than a disappointment.

It should have been more entertaining and it’s trying so hard to be.

A Douglas Adams-like story about the absurdities surrounding time travel and its implication, Foop! never lives up to its early promise. The middle lags a lot and I figured out where the story was headed long before the main characters did. Whether it’s because I’ve read a bit of these type of stories in the past or it was just a bit too predictable I’m not sure.

[40 Forte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book, that's probably more like a 3.5 than a 4. However, as a 1st novel from someone it's definitely entertaining and the imagery inside is much better than average.

Time travel highlights one of the major themes, with a similar feel to elements of "Cat's Cradle" by Vonnegut.

It's got a share of humor as well as sci-fi, and the underlying premise of the difficulties and desires of human connectivity.

Solid effort.

[Yvensong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say, this was probably one of the strangest books I've ever read. It is hard to say I actually liked it, but I couldn't stop reading. I had to find out where these disturbed, lunatic creations of the author were going to end up.

There were a few issues that could have been fixed in the novel with tighter editing, but for a first novel, published by a small press to boot, this was not a bad start to what may be a lucrative career for Chris Genoa.

[Mykle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for time travel stories, so Foop! is right up my alley. And it's witty as hell, though somewhat digressive and even rambling at moments. But as silly and far-flung and downright weird as the plot gets, it's never boring, and Joe's voice rings true through it all: funny, observant, yet so jaded and lonely that even time travel is "just a job," and not a good one.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best, and funniest, novel that I've read in a long time. Joe, the main character, really makes the book. I'm a sucker for self-deprecating characters that are a bit out of their head and really love the way that Joe describes his world. Highly recommended!

[Kim Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

a fun read

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious... but I may have donated it to Amsterdam. Oops.

[FransJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a horrible book! I read the first pages and thought it could be nice: typical wise-crack humor which I found sufficiently amusing... At first... The problem is: every single sentence, very paragraph, every chapter is in this style... Very tiresome! And often the vaguely amusing gets into the downright irritating because he goes on and one about it.
So this might be an aim to write something in the Douglas Adams/ Jasper Fforde category, but it does not have one bit of the qualities and humor of those writers.
In addition: ALL of the characters in this book are very unpleasant and the plot does not lead to anything - with an ending which does leave things unexplained and is very unsatisfactory - no doubt the author found it very amusing, this vague prediction that all of our lifes will be erased. No doubt one of the worst books I have read in years: a complete waste of time.
It is lying next to me on my desk now, but in a few moments it will be in the paper recycle bin (and I never throw away any books!) where it can serve its only useful purpose.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was so disappointing. it tried far to hard to be funny and wasn't that it ruined the few parts that were decent. the only part that was remotely entertaining was the scene at the breakfast barn and that only because I pictured martini as a coworker. this book was hyped up to be hilarity and not only was it not funny but it then ended on a serious note that made no sense in relation to the rest of the book. do yourself a favor and don't read this

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main weakness of this book is the lack of any coherent plot. There is a plot line, but its barely a single thread. The majority of the book is various situations the main character finds himself in that seem to be constructed mainly for the purpose of creating gags. Some are funny, some are funny if you are a 13 yo boy, and some just don't seem to have a punch line. In any case, without a coherent plot, they come off as a bunch of gags loosely strung together.

[John Gibbons · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was hit or miss for me. It's been called a comedy, but I didn't find it all that humorous. It had it's moments and was decent enough for me to pick up the authors other book, "Lick Your Neighbor". "Foop" had it's humorous moments, and was by and large a decent story, but it just didn't do it for me.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of fun. I read it so fast I don't remember any of it. Except it did remind me of Douglas Addams, it had that absurdist touch.

[Bigolbook'Nman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funniest shit I've read in my life. You'll be laughing your ass off by the second page and it only gets better from there. I only wish the guy wrote more than two books.

[Parallel Worlds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eraserhead Press, 2005
Intended Audience: Adult
Sexual content: Explicit
Ace/Genderqueer characters: None
Rating: R for language, disturbing scenarios, and sexuality
Writing style: 3/5
Likable characters: 1/5
Plot/Concepts: 2/5

Joe is a time-travel tour guide, taking people to key moments in history so they can watch them unfold with their own eyes. Unfortunately, his insane boss Burk wants him to go back and prevent various unpleasant things from happening to Burk’s past self.

I picked this book up at the library thinking it would be a lot like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in its comedic style, relying mostly on ridiculous situations and their consequences, but still having some heart and substance beneath it all. Well, there were plenty of ridiculous situations, but I only found a handful of them funny. Mostly I just ended up staring at the page feeling like I was reading the diary of an otherwise shallow and apathetic college guy on a lot of really crazy drugs. The humor was mostly crass, and the rare “meaningful” moments were often punctuated with disgusting or pointlessly disturbing happenings.

There was no real heart, or if there was a heart somewhere in that mish-mashed parade of idiocy, it was well hidden and possibly quite mangled by the isolated and discombobulated life Joe leads. Yes, he longs for intimacy and spiritual/emotional connection with other people, but he never really gets it, and is always looking in the wrong places. I found this all rather off-putting. It didn’t make me want to empathize with Joe’s character much because his existence felt so hollow and meaningless, all his attempts at happiness quite futile. That depressing fact, combined with the author trying so hard to make the plot as random and ridiculous and crude as possible, made me feel the same sort of annoyance as I might feel while flipping through a hundred TV channels. I’m looking for something that will make me feel better about a night alone at home, but nothing good is on and a lot of the ads are way too loud and obnoxious in their need to grab my attention.

The biggest thing this book has going for it is the entertaining narrative style. The main character remains just bewildered and just apathetic enough to ride along making inward commentary on all the nonsensical happenings around him. But although I was entertained by how things were said, I often didn’t like what was being said or, for that matter, the person speaking. There were absolutely zero characters I felt a connection with. The closest I got was Martini, Joe’s overly sensitive coworker, but that’s only because I felt sorry for the guy. Everybody else was either too bland, too weird, or too selfish and shallow for me to like at all. There were even robots and super intelligent animals and I didn’t really like them either. They were just props in a stage set for acting out pointless lunacy.

Toward the end it felt a bit like the author tried to make it all mean something, somehow. But I wasn’t feeling it. It was all too little, too late. If his goal was to make his reader as uncomfortable as possible with life, or force upon them the same kind of pathetic resignation to chaos and meaninglessness that Joe suffers, then maybe he succeeded. But otherwise I have little doubt that Foop! is intended to be just as void of real meaning as I felt it to be, its only purpose being to show off the writer’s ability to throw a bunch of funny ideas together in a roughly connected sequence of events.

Simply combining lots of interesting ideas doesn’t make one a good writer any more than throwing a bunch of interesting ingredients in a blender makes one a good chef. Sure, the result might be unique, but is it palatable? I have to admit I metaphorically gagged on Foop!

[Shayna L · Rating 1 out of 5]

When this book begins, it's alright. Not stunning by a long shot, but ok. There's time travel, which is kinda neat. The plot has chances to become interesting. I'd have given it 3 stars just based on the start. Some things were less promising, though. Let's start with the characters.
Joe is our main character. He's boring and whiny and very lonely and, unfortunately, you have to hear the entire book from his sad POV. Joe spends a much too large piece of this book talking about how alone and desperate he is for me to think the author didn't project some sad little parts of himself into the character.
Burk is a terrible character. He is a genius physicist who is also a giant, military-ish ape of a man. Oh yeah. And he is super over-emotional to the point of screaming til he gets what he wants. Burks is like a seven year old's creation. A caricature taken to extremes with no substance. If we could say a well rounded character is like a work of art then, for example, the kid in The Shining would be this: http://www.lexscripta.com/graphics/Je...
And the characters in this book would be more like this: http://www.lucylearns.com/images/mum-...
All the more minor characters are just as weak and you learn to dread each one for various reasons.
Also there are some sketchy little drawings tossed in here and there that add nothing to the book, but are placed so that you see the drawing before getting a chance to imagine the characters on their own. I found this supremely obnoxious. When I get annoyed, the bigger the words, the more pissed I am. So "supremely obnoxious" means I may or may not have flipped the book off.

Still, being around half way in, I decided, even if this book is intensely mediocre, I may as well finish. Besides, it's the only book I left in my office.

Well, it gets worse. At about the half way mark the author seems to decide that bodily humor is the best humor and runs with it. Fart and molestation jokes are crammed in (and here is where Mr. Genoa would put yet another poorly timed dirty joke) everywhere. So much so that you can guess just about how many more sentences it'll be til the next mention of poop. Nothing worse than being predictable when you're trying to be funny. Toilet humor is fun and all, but this takes it down about to the level of grossness that I remember from the more rank kids in middle school. When you are a grown man relying almost entirely on fart jokes to make a book funny and your name is NOT Terrance and/or Phillip, then stop writing and burn whatever you are working on.

Honestly, the most poignant part of this book for me was turning to the About the Author section because it gave me such deep sadness to discover Genoa was working on more books. I hope that he either got a hell of a lot better at that writing thing or that he abandoned this job he's got such a pittance of talent for.

TL;DR The book sucks. I don't do spoilers here on GoodReads, but if you are considering purchasing this book, just note me and I will personally give you a summary so you don't waste your money and brain cells on this junk.

[Tratchka · Rating 2 out of 5]

“A surreal pie in the face.” So touts Christopher Moore on the front cover of Foop!, an aptly categorized “bizzaro fiction” novel by Chris Genoa. I’m inclined to agree with the pie comment, if for no other reason than I felt like I was being punk’d the entire time I was reading this book. It reminded me of something one of my high school or college peers would have written during a particularly intense experience with a psychotropic drug.

This is not to say I didn’t enjoy this book. After reading “Emily and Einstein,” I needed a good laugh. I definitely got it here. The main character, (Average) Joe, works for Dactyl, Inc., a time-travel tourism company operating in the not-so-distant future. Joe is tasked with the responsibility of traveling back in time and discovering who is torturing younger versions of his boss (who not so secretly hates him) in weird and disturbing ways. He does so with the assistance of a cast of not-so-average characters, including a blind, hog-tying chimp.

The story follows Joe and his quest in such a way that the reader can’t help but laugh in spite of themselves. I was confused through much of the book, but still found myself laughing uncontrollably or picking up my phone to text my friends quotes that literally had me holding my bladder (one, in particular, involving bright beams of light and sexually depraved leprechauns.) For much of the book, Joe’s internal dialogue, in its crass and self-deprecating manner, reminded me of Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, but with the over-arching “what the hell?” the reader often experiences when reading Chuck Palahniuk.
Foop! took me an unusually long time to read. I found that if I was tired, or in an environment where I wasn’t able to give the book my full, undivided attention, I’d find myself plodding along, only to have to flip back several pages because I had no idea what was going on. Only in the last 20 pages or so does anything come together and Foop! begin to make sense. However, by the time you reach that point, your perception of “sense” has been distorted beyond recognition by the rest of the story.

While this book may not have been entirely my cup of tea, it definitely had is merits. As I said, it was side-splittingly funny and Chris Genoa has a style that, while reminiscent of other writers, is completely 100% his own. If you’re in the mood to simultaneously scratch your head, hold your bladder, and resist the urge to vomit, I suggest you give Foop! a try.

For this and other reviews, please visit my blog: http://www.ygreadallover.wordpress.com

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I marked Foop! "to-read", and subsequently found it at the library staring me in the face, I was delighted. Based mostly on the title, and somewhat on Goodreads' description, I was hoping to be caught up in a wacky science fiction adventure in the tradition of Douglas Adams. The sound "foop", you see, is what the Krikkit Masters' robots' ship makes when it departs (presumably through a wormhole) in Life The Universe and Everything. Well, I got about 100 pages in, the latter 50 or so by force of will alone, and then gave up. Will I try Foop! again? No. Will I try reading something by Chris Genoa again should the opportunity present itself? Yes. Unless my 30 seconds of research is inadequate, Foop! is Genoa's first book...which is what it feels like. In Orson Scott Card's book Characters and Viewpoint he ways that most beginning writers use first person narration, not realizing that it is often much harder to write convincingly from that viewpoint than from third person. I think this is true, a prime example being Card himself, whose first novel, Treason is narrated by the protagonist, and is in places exceedingly awkward. But look what happened with him! The Ender saga, the Alvin Maker saga...I could go on, but won't. Anyway, if I'd read Treason before anything else of Card's I might have never gotten to Speaker for the Dead. So if I ever see one of Chris Genoa's two forthcoming novels staring at me in the New Fiction section, I'll pick it up. Genoa certainly has some interesting ideas, and potential as a writer that I'd like to see fully developed.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my mind, Chris Genoa is some experimental plant hybridized in an Army research lab -- a little Warren Ellis pollen sprinkled onto the pistil of the Christopher Moore blossom. The experiment yields fruit but they're not taking it out of the greenhouse lab quite yet; perhaps further cross-pollinating it with the rare Tom Robbins tree? Time will tell...

As for Foop!: time travel is one of science fiction's oldest and therefore toughest tropes. Choosing to accept this assignment (in a poetical sense here) for his first novel shows some cojones on Genoa's part. And if you can get past the prurient and at times puerile patches of prose, Genoa has given us an interesting, quirky story with a latent sub-text of alienation and despondence. But the exposition for this sub-text seems few and far between and when it does emerge, it lists toward those same prurient/puerile passages. After a while, it just gets gratuitous.

But the novel has a great opening chapter. And Genoa is wise to tip away from strictly happy endings.

ALSO: unrelated to the story itself but a few notes on the physical properties of this book:
(1) Could have used a better editor (e.g., "Ok" vs. "OK" (vs. "Okay"?); e.g., "affect" vs. "effect")
(2) Typesetting is pretty bad (e.g., inexplicably mixed font sizes; e.g., there's an ordered list that has all kinds of just wrong hanging indents...)

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aliens, robots, other planets, time travel, dystopias. All these archetypes of science fiction make their appearance in one fashion or another in Foop! , a first novel by Chris Genoa.[return][return]Foop! is a comedic and at times scatological look at where the Earth may be headed and why. Its hero is Joe, who, as the name implies, is just an average guy. Joe is a tour guide for the world's first time travel tourism company. He is assigned the task of discovering why persons unknown seem to be abusing past versions of his boss. Along the way Joe has to cope with an evil-looking pair he is convinced are out to cause him harm and encounters with the adherents of a new religion that seems to be sweeping the country. Even more problematic are the seemingly increasing glitches in the space-time continuum.[return][return]Foop! is satirical social commentary on a wide range of issues and everyman Joe is a perfectly likeable guide on this surreal tour. Even if the book doesn't entirely succeed, it is at least a relatively pleasurable trip.[return][return]Originally posted at http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=406

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Ok first effort. i thought there probably could have been about 100 pages less, because there was a lot of unnecessary filler content peppered through out this book. i also think this novel should have done away of the swearing and sex and just made this into a children's novel, i think it may have worked out better, could have made the story stronger and allowed the author to really explore the nether-regions of his creative sub-conscience. instead of going for a shock factor.

my major qualm is, i like knowing who the authors influences are, i just dont want the other authors to be completely mimicked in the books i rad my the influenced. it feels like Chris is trying too much be both Hunter S. Thompson and Chuck Palahniuk at the same time, in which is an impossible combination.

all in all it was mildly entertaining sci-fi romop. i was not looking for any life altering meaning behind the book, i was jsut looking for something to pass the time, in which Foop! did. again, i think taking out the filler content and attempting to make this a "young persons" novel would have been a more linear way to go.

[Jesse · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is one of the slew that has been coming out of the west coast "avante-punk" movement that emphasizes the absurd and surreal. Foop! has it's moments where it almost becomes interesting--where the plot or ideas seemingly start to come together--but never does. It's a tale of a time-travelling tour guide who witnesses first-hand how his exploits begin to unravel the infamous but undefined "space-time continuum." In theory, this is a pretty fantastic idea but in execution, Chris Genoa gets too caught up in the silly and surreal to ever truly give the concept the weight it merits. It gets caught up on what the author intends to be a running hilarious scene but often isn't. It has shimmers of brilliance in plot and development but settles for pies in the face instead.
I recommend skipping this book entirely but remembering the author's name. Although I doubt he will ever be able to leave this absurd-ist mantle behind, he has the potential to write some inventive, creative books. If you do suffer through the whole thing, the last chapter is when we witness Chris at his most poetic and if he can channel that author more frequently, he may be on to something.

[Aj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foop! by Chris Genoa is an appealing science-fiction farce with healthy doses of amusing social commentary. I liked Foop! but wanted to like it more. All the ingredients were there, and it did taste good, but I couldn’t help but think that a dash more of this and a little less of that would have really made it a great read.

The story follows a rather overwhelmed and juvenile Joe, a time travel tour guide. We join Joe in crisis, having to step in for John Wilkes Booth and assassinate Abraham Lincoln. (I can’t help but think of Sarah Vowell right out of the gate and have to believe she’s read Foop!) It’s in these first few chapters that we’re introduced to how time travel works in Foop! and the ’shaved cat’ principle that ensures that any changes made in the past do not effect the future. Or do they?

Read my full review on the Used Books Blog:
http://usedbooksblog.com/blog/foop-by...

[Dia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is arguably the best book ever written. You should go read it now.

This is one of the few books I have read more than once and I have probably read it 5-6 times. I usually don't like the main character in books, but I love Joe. Even though I kind of don't like to admit it, I can very much relate to Joe. Sometimes when I am feeling down, I read this book to make me feel better about life. It is like therapy.

Here are a few things that make this book awesome:
- They travel in time.
- The shaved cat principle pretty much means you can travel to the past and do absolutely anything except kill yourself, without consequence.
- There are creepy aliens.
- Devolution is a thing! This means that you can turn people into apes.
- Abe Lincoln really is the missing link.
- Malone is a blind hog-tying ape.

I named my cats after characters in this book (Malarkey and Malone).

[Jsrott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me because of my love of Tom Holt and Terry Pratchett. After reading this debut novel, I understand why. It is definitely in that same vein of surreal absurdity. The difference is, where Pratchett and Holt can spin a yarn that gets more and more ridiculous, you always know the story is moving exactly how the author wanted it to. This book felt as thought the story was a little too wild for the author to control, and at a few points busted out and was never reined back in. The ending was a little bleak, in the way that Douglas Adams got a little bleak at the end of some of his work. While it was a decent enough story, I felt as though the author needs a little more experience before he starts to write some really, really good work. I do feel though, that it is in him.