Library & Literary Miscellany

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (2007)

Omnes mundum facimus
(We all make the World)

Omnes mundum facimus is a central belief of the branch of a secret crime-fighting organization known as the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons (nickname: Bad Monkeys). The Bad Monkeys department works alongside other branches of the organization such as the Department for Optimal Utilization of Resources and Personnel (nickname: Cost-Benefits) and the Department of Ubiquitous Intermittent Surveillance (nickname: Panopticon) to expunge evil from the world by whatever means necessary.

Bad Monkeys kicks off with Jane Charlotte, a woman claiming to be a Bad Monkeys operative, narrating her story from within the walls of the psychiatric ward of the Las Vegas Clark County Detention Center. Dr. Vale enters “the nut wing” to interview/interrogate her, ostensibly to determine her sanity. Jane obligingly recounts for him all of her experiences leading up to her present position in the nut wing (in addition to possible insanity, she’s being held for murder).

Jane tells Dr. Vale that her actions with the Bad Monkeys organization have all been for the express purpose of ridding the world of evil. As Bad Monkeys personnel, she has the authority and the intel to eliminate “bad monkeys” who have evaded society’s usual modes of justice.

Jane’s conversation with Dr. Vale shifts back and forth between present day dialogue and flashbacks of Jane’s J.D. (juvenile delinquent) youth. Jane details her life pre-Bad Monkeys as well as her experiences after joining the Bad Monkeys.

As Dr. Vale listens to Jane’s story, he frequently requests clarification and points out incongruities. While Jane always has a ready answer, readers are left to wonder about the veracity of Jane’s tale and about the very existence of the Bad Monkeys organization.

Organization tools such as the N.C. (natural causes) gun nudge the book over into the realm of science fiction, but there’s a great deal of psychological drama and suspense here as well. In a book replete with plot twists and page turning events, just who’s a bad monkey and who’s not Ruff leaves up to debate until the book’s final pages.

Bad Monkeys is an adult book that may well also enthrall many young adults. For those looking for more, there’s always Ruff’s other works and/or the Bad Monkeys super secret website to explore (shhhh…). Or you could try choosing a book from one of the following booklists:

Overbooked: Psychological Suspense Crime Fiction Booklist This list contains “Darkly atmospheric stories, disturbing mind games, engrossing and compelling characters - stories that generate a sense of unease . . .” which seems to aptly match up with the ambience of Bad Monkeys.

Hennepin County Library: A Child’s Look into an Adult World: Quirky Psychological Fiction “This list is made up of books that deal with heavy subjects but are narrated by children, offering a somewhat innocent look at the highs and lows of modern life. If you appreciate a good mystery told from a psychologically unique perspective, some of these books are absolute winners!” (Note: the books on this list are Bad Monkeys read alikes in the sense that they contain psychological drama, but, by and large, they don’t have as much emphasis on the crime and/or suspense aspect).

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Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde (2007)

Being as this book marks the fifth book into the Thursday Next series, one would imagine that Jasper Fforde might be running out of new ideas for his BookWorld and his characters. But that would be wrong thinking indeed as Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is every bit as inventive and delightful as the first four books in the series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten. First Among Sequels is set 14 years after the last novel, Something Rotten, and, as usual, all is not right in the BookWorld and Thursday Next is needed to save the day.

To briefly, insomuch as possible, elucidate the world on which the series is based Fforde has basically created an alternate England where the BookWorld is more than just words on a page. Thursday works as a Jurisfiction literary detective for the Special Operations Network (or SpecOps); in this position, her raison d’etre is to investigate and correct anomalies in the literary world.

In First Among Sequels, Thursday, as usual, has quite a full plate what with her family problems, her issues with her proteges/replicas/clones, and the BookWorld dilemmas. To briefly elaborate:

• Family problems: Since SpecOps has been largely disbanded, Thursday has been working undercover as an Acme Carpets carpet layer. She has been omitting the truth about her daily activities to her struggling writer husband Landon. Her son Friday remains mired in the apathy of adolescence and shows no signs of embracing his predestined role as leader of the Chronoguard (the time travel force) anytime soon. One of her three children may not, in fact, exist. Her pet dodo Pickwick has lost its feathers and requires a knit sweater for warmth. Enough said.
• Protege/replica/clone issues: Thursday has had her adventures written up in a series of Thursday Next books which means that other versions of her exist in the BookWorld. Thursday has been charged with training both Thursday 5 (wimpy with a good heart) and Thursday 1-4 (nasty with plans of BookWorld domination) to become competent, productive agents of Jurisfiction.
• Bookworld dilemmas: There are many, but to name a few, the read rates are plummeting as the public gravitates to reality TV-watching, the Goliath corporation is mucking about trying to enter the BookWorld again with its probes, and a serial killer is on the loose who takes out series’ main characters, effectively killing the character and the series (Sherlock Holmes being just one of the characters to take a hit). The Council of Genres (COG) has been coming up with inane solutions in attempts to stem the plummeting read rates (e.g., Pride and Prejudice as a reality TV-like book (horrors!)).

Whew, and all that above really only touches the surface of what Fforde has going on in the book. Be warned that this book does spend more time outside the BookWorld than many of the previous books, but (for the most part) even these parts are amusing and inventive. Still, it’s the BookWorld activity that really makes the pages worth turning. First Among Sequels is zany, clever, and replete with unresolved plot lines that leaves room for additional forthcoming adventures with Thursday and her clan in the BookWorld.

Quotes I’d be Remiss to Miss:

“One of the odd things about the BookWorld was that when characters weren’t being read, they generally relaxed and talked, rehearsed, drank coffee, watched cricket or played mah-jongg. But as soon as a reading loomed, they all leaped into place and did their thing.”

“There was a distant hum and a rumble as the reading approached. Then came a light buzz in the air like staic and an increased heightening of the sense as the reader took up the descriptive power of the book and translated it into his or her own unique interpretation of the events–channeled from here through the massive imaginotransference Storycode Engines back at Text Grand Central and into the reader’s imagination. It was a technology of almost incalculable complexity, which I had yet to fully understand. But the beauty of the whole process was that the reader in the Outland never suspected there was a process at all–the act of reading was to most people, myself included, as natural as breathing.”

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