Fiction
Rue De La Pompe: A Satiric Urban Fantasy
James Earle McCracken
iUniverse
2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-48505-5
Soft cover
236 pages
Rue De La Pompe: A Satiric Urban Fantasy is indeed brimming with humor and outrageous images that challenge and test the imagination. It is the story of an American living and working in Paris who beings an adventure the evening of his thirtieth birthday. The reader is quickly pulled along on a roller-coaster ride through the surface beauty of the City of Lights as well as its bowels, picking up a clutch of bizarre characters along the way.
Following a pity-filled, solo celebration of his birthday at a bar on rue de la Pompe or "Pump Street," not far from his apartment, Michael Whyte discovers two things: a ticket from a nearby cleaners for an item that turns out to be a tuxedo and an invitation from his upstairs neighbors to a late night party. In time Michael learns that the coin embedded in the top collar button of the shirt accompanying the tuxedo is a replica of the first franc created in French history. This insight jump starts Michael's journey through Paris and several fantasy-filled encounters with his neighbors Yvon and Danielle, their friends Daniel and Yvonne, a Deaf Mute Guy, a grouchy Englishman, and the beautiful jack-of-all-trades Chione.
McCracken mixes humor related to bodily fluids and sexual organs with layers of history about the coin, including its value and the story of its curse, as recounted by Yvon and the other strange characters. The author reveals the book's mysticism in Michael's loss of chunks of time, the use of a tanning salon as a portal to exotic beaches, and talking museum pieces. One aspect of the book that allows for insight into Michael's character is the on-going conversation between his multiple personalities, each of which represents Michael's varying levels of maturity. The non-stop dialogue, while informative, also has the potential to wear on the reader.
Ultimately, the combination of humor and fantasy makes Rue de la Pompe: A Satiric Urban Fantasy an entertaining and enlightening read.
Melissa Levine
For Independent Professional Book Reviewers
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