You Poor Monster: or This Should Answer Your Questions, My Son

by Michael Kun

A young Baltimore lawyer is thrown into an ugly divorce proceeding and finds himself befriending his client, the charming and generous Sam Shoogey. Shoogey is a former war hero, college football star, professional boxer and novelist. Or is he? As more and more of Shoogey's sweet and funny tales unravel, the narrator unexpectedly finds himself drawn even more to Shoogey, posing the question, "Is a lie a lie if you know it's untrue, or is it just a story?" Kun again plays with the form and function of the English language to tell a captivating story in a new way with a combination of humor and tragedy. Readers themselves will become characters in the book when they are swept up in fantastical elements that make Kun’s characters so real.

Genres: Fiction

340 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Michael Kun lives in Los Angeles, California. He practices law when he is not writing, or vice versa.

Reviews

[Camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I now know what it feels like to have my soul sucked out of me.. I have no words. I cant review this book.. This.. (insert full on Hollywood *hand on mouth to quiet the sounds of sobbing while the tears run down my already tear-wet face* scene)

Fuck.. Let me try again.. This is a book about a guy, Ham and another guy Shoogey.. Ham has a family and one day they meet their neighbor Shoogey...

No, I cant do this right now..

Review to come..

(insert break for more tears down my already very wet face)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Next day..

3 times.. 3 times I started to cry in the hour after finishing this book… 3 times…

I really need to write this review.. And if not for you (the possible reader) then for me, myself and I. I have a feeling I’ll come back to this review many times. There’s always going to be something I’ve not said or something else that I need to tell the possible reader, or my future self, about this book..

This book.. Its.. umm.. Special.. Its nothing I’ve ever read before.. And I don’t know if I want to kiss the author (sorry possible wife) or if I want to slap him (sorry author).

We have Ham Ashe, with his wife and 2 small girls. We have their almost neighbour Sam Shoogey.
Shoogey is going through a divorce and needs the help of Ham, who happens to be a lawyer, and that is how their journey begins..
After Shoogey joins their life, you can’t help but love him. He has this way of talking and telling stories that just sucks you right in.. (Thanks for that author!! Oh you know why I’m all *narrow eyes* at you right now!) You cant help but love Shoogey.. Well I couldn’t at least. I loved Shoogey!

I found out while reading this, that I know I’m reading a good book, when I cant help but think “Oh, I need to quote this line in my review” which I did.. a lot.. and after 70 pages, I could have quoted everything Shoogey had said.. He was dry, with a funny twist. If that’s even a thing to be.. Dry with a funny twist.

Through the first 75% of this book I was LOL’ing (as the kids call it these days) I was freaking laughing out loud. I loved the people in this book. I loved the amazing flow of words and the funny dialogue. Then 75% in… BAM! Something changed. The mood changed.. That was all it was in the beginning. I wasn’t laughing anymore. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t laughing anymore. It was still the same people. They were all there, but now I wanted to cry.. And I cried. I didn’t understand why though. What had changed? I cried over nothing. It was the mood that had changed. It was the endnotes!! And I cried.


I will not go into what happens, ‘cause trust me you don’t want to know.. But you will want to read this book! Just do yourself a favor and read the endnotes.. Yes, this book has endnotes! Some are funny, some are just information, some are heartbreaking..

Read the endnotes!

Read the book.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the only emotionally manipulative book that I would willfully read again (suck it, Niffenegger). Michael Kun is something of a genius. Apparently he often uses interesting conceits to tell his stories - in this book it is a series of footnotes which counter-balance the mostly light-hearted narrative. The book is awlays intriguing and well told, and at times it is keenly funny. Also, it features my new favorite city-that-I-don't-live-in: Baltimore.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm skeptical of reviews that use phrases like "reinventing the genre of fiction," but it's true in Michael Kun's case. This novel is truly innovative, clever and emotionally poignant. I can't get it out of my mind.

About the endnotes: I thought the endnotes were a pain in the ass at first, and I got tired of flipping back and forth between the text and notes around chapter 2. I read the book straight through, then read the endnotes straight through. I thought that worked for the story and the revelations about the characters. I'd be curious to compare notes with someone who read the endnotes the conventional way.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was really taken aback by this book. i thought it was another "realistic" story about a lawyer who experiences things in his life blah blah blah. but i absolutely fell in love with this book. it was beautifully written with wonderful characters who i felt like i knew. i liked it so much i bought it and i'm picky about what i buy. it was just, wow. i was not expecting that out of this book.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I See Dead People"

" 'The world would be funny if it weren't so sad,' he'd said. 'Or the world would be sad if it weren't so funny.' "

I've now read a few books that are two-fers. That is, you think you're reading one book and then there's a twist on the final page that opens your eyes and sends you back to the beginning in order to reread the second, hidden, book. Sort of like the movie, "The Sixth Sense". This book doesn't work that way, although the effect can be the same.

The book consists of the main text and a series of footnotes, all of which are collected at the end. You can skip the notes, which will still leave you with a fine read. You can read the footnotes as you go, which will wise you up more quickly, as the book shifts its tone and nature. Or, you can read the book and then read the endnotes all at once, which is what I did. That's more cumbersome, because you will want to trace the notes back to where they appeared in the text, but that will enhance the gut punch effect.

This all works because the book is written on at least three levels. It's a novel written in the first person. So, you get the fictional narrator's "I" describing maddening/lying main character Shoogie. Then you get the end notes, which are written by the author, and of course are also written in first person. This author is two characters, because sometimes he writes as though he really is just the actual, Michael Kun, author and sometimes he writes as the fictional author, fictional Michael Kun.

This sounds cumbersome, but it works. (It partly works because this book started out as a 650 page serial and the actual real author actually really had to cut it down and so actually really had the sorts of exchanges with his editor/publisher that appear in the early endnotes.) About 75% through the book the endnotes take off as their own story, and that's where the mood and substance and heart of the book begin to come together and beat.

The beauty here is that putting aside the experimental angle and the Russian doll feeling and the perspective/character sleight of hand, and the general unreliableness of just about everything, the book is well written. It is composed of lots of little scenes and set pieces that are lovely no matter how they fit into the larger puzzle. There are great throwaway lines, perceptive insights, and lots of material that's played for laugh out loud, though still fairly deadpan, humor.

The upshot is that there are some structural head game things going on here, but they add extra dimensions without ruining the solid foundation. In my experience it's rare to find a book that can elaborate and riff on a linear plot without getting itself lost, but this one pulls that off. Even though it started as just a humorous tale of a mild young lawyer overwhelmed by a bigger-than-life client, it ended up being a fascinating, entertaining, and wildly imaginative and well crafted effort that engaged me on many levels. A great find.

[Jamie E · Rating 2 out of 5]

It appears I didn't like this book as much as everyone else, because I didn't get the allure. Maybe I'm not smart enough to understand the poignance or provoke thought. I thought the end notes were clever, but I saw those in another recent read, so it was nothing new and exciting.

I liked the story telling but not the story. As I've noted before, if I don't care if everyone dies at the end, and/or if I have no interest in what happens to characters once the story has ended, there's an excellent chance I didn't love the book.

Maybe you need to be in or near Baltimore to get it.

[Wufusk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinatingly creative style of storytelling. The poetic use of metaphor is engaging, and the end-notes make the story seem real, while at the same time pulling the reader out of the main story just enough to question what is real, and to ponder the nature of (as Joanne Wilkinson said) "outward appearances and the role of self-deception." To make sense of this novel, you have to look beyond face value - who are these characters, really? And how much of our own memory is borrowed?

[Justin Hilbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book hurt my brain. it will most definitely piss you off when it's over. however, it's well written and incredibly funny through the first several chapters. something turns though and it starts to eat at you a little. I recommend giving it a shot. also, read the endnotes at your own discretion. they transform the story from standard fiction, to something in a league of its own but you have to be prepared to face the consequences in doing so.

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

1st edition

[Nicholas Langlois · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the footnotes made for an interesting back story, the overall message was clear. I also enjoyed the author's writing style and would definitely read his books in the future.

[Chris Desmottes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book. Being a native Baltimorian made it even better.