Jim Krusoe's Girl Factory is almost as entertaining for its poor style and quality as it is for the story that is so much fluff apropos of nothing.
Our main character, Jonathan, is an underachieving, though well meaning, type of guy who lacks direction and the drive to get him anywhere in life. He holds down a job at Mr. Twisty's, a yogurt establishment placed in a strip mall beside a hardware store, pet shop, and nail salon. He stumbles on a secret in the basement of Mr. Twisty's that provides the impetus for this unlikely adventure. And here the story remains stuck as Jonathan tries again and again to undo the damage that has been done in the basement, while failing miserably every time.
The greatest shortcoming in Mr. Krusoe's work is the need for and lack of editing provided for this novel. Extraneous bits of plot and narrative dangle throughout the novel like the sort of spammy, chain mail humor distant acquaintances drop in my e-mail's inbox each morning. There is a bit about a hyper-intelligent government test dog named Buck. There is a trip to Mexico that only serves to show how shallow and incomplete a character Jonathan really is. There are characters who show up and die just for the purpose of moving this DOA plot along.
The book is labeled as being a humorous tale, and it is funny with respect to how terrible it is. Jokes are scattered like pepper on a bland plate, and they only serve to draw attention to how tasteless the entree is. I must admit to a sort of perverted desire to keep reading just to see how bad things got. I wasn't disappointed, but if you come into this novel expecting a challenging, coherent read, you may be.
—2008-12-05 08:45:15
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