MUSOS - The Terrifying Existence of the Void Man
What a lovely person Charlene Elsby is. She sent me a signed copy of MUSOS with its eerie cover, and I was hooked based on the picture alone.
A few things struck me immediately about this book. Obviously the cover was one of them. The font and its varying sizes according to the thoughts and feelings that our unnamed narrator had. The lack of page numbers. It's all conducive to a foray into chaos, existentialism, and inner darkness that our Void Man experiences on his own terms. The whole book is like a circle. It's maddening, crazy, dreamy, and nightmarish. Our Void Man is filled with obsession and a need to possess others to feel like he is alive, real, actually here. A sinister quote that stuck with me was, "I wouldn't call it love, but whatever it is when you come to resent that another person's body isn't also yours."
This book reminded me of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and The Demon by Hubert Selby Jr. I very much enjoyed reading it, but I did have to put it down often to step away from the poison that was Void Man's life perspective. Kind of like that toxic friend who you need to mentally prepare for before you hang out together. Honestly, I had to fight myself on not giving it five stars. It's really well-written. My personal issues with it were that the tone seemed to remain the same throughout and I had hoped for a sort of climax that would lead to any kind of catharsis, and it didn't quite hit that. I was looking for an Aha! moment or some kind of satisfaction, and it might be my own fault for expecting that, but that's why I brought it down to a four-star rating.
Do find yourself a way to pick this up if you enjoy looking at life through the lens of the bleak and cold void.
