Stand-up comedy in 184 pages

Had I read WILL EPICQWEST.COM in my early twenties, I would likely have said, "Right ON, Dude!" But thirty years and stacks of both good and bad fiction have had their way with me.

Will is a depressed college student on drugs. Not the recreational type, but rather lithium, Haldol, Thorazine and Depakone. He sees the psychopharmacologist more often than you or I visit the supermarket. Thus chemically supported, Will's self-appointed purpose in life, his "epic quest", is to stop the spread of Information Sickness (IS). As he explains, IS is caused by:

"A virus that makes people think, and occasionally laugh, too much. Once they realize they exist in a universe of infinite and often contradictory truths, they die. Shock, system overload."

The villain of the piece is the evil, tenured professor, Dr. Bones, who created IS in the process of developing a fat-free foodstuff. Bones is assisted by the gorgeous supermodel, Crystal Goodlay. Will's faithful Kimosabe is his laptop's advisor software, Spunky.

I won't say that WILL EPICQWEST.COM is unfunny, or unclever, or without nuggets of insight. Through his wired hero, author Tom Grimes creates snappy, smart-alecky humor about everything from capitalism, Western philosophy, absent Dad's, the democratic elective process, female self-empowerment, the male value system, women's breasts, investment strategy, automated answering systems, to medical care. It's sort of a stand-up comedy routine in 184 pages, and the epic quest to halt IS is just a vehicle to provide continuity. Unfortunately, like Chinese food, even the best stand-up routine leaves me feeling empty after thirty minutes and wondering what all the fuss was about. By page 150, I was in a hurry just to finish and move on to something more substantial, more useful, and/or more instructive. This book is perhaps best read in its entirety on a long plane ride, and you can leave it in the seat pocket in front of you when you get off.

Although I think it is a little over the top to compare this "novel" (actually it reads more like an unformated script for the next Mike Meyers flick) to "a daring cross between Voltaire's Candide and Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove" as the cover blurb does, I do think Tom Grimes is one very funny dude. What this "epic quest" really reminds me of is Don Quixote de la Mancha as updated by Saturday Night Live.

Will, the "anti-hero" of this "medicated memoir" is a freshman at a "by the side of the Interstate" college near a polluted bay whose psychopharmacologist(s) have him on Prozac, Lithium, Xanax, etc. so that he might cope with the vicissitudes of postmodern life. Peering through the haze he discovers a new viral infection set loose on the world by "the evil Dr. Bones," a disease he calls "Information Sickness." Too much meaningless information apparently kills, and so Will begins a Quixotic quest to save humanity from information overload. Along the way he has kinky and funny carnal knowledge of two babes and what might be called wet noodle knowledge of a third, respectively, Crystal Goodlay (body-beautiful assistant to the evil Dr. B.), ABD Chandra (belly dancer and Indian chef extraordinaire), and Naomi (fellow virology student and luscious centerfold spread).

So much for the plot premise, which doesn't matter. What Tom Grimes is really up to here is a mass satirical attack on all things postmodern, corporate, governmental, intellectual, collegiate, therapeutic, literary, sexual, informational, and a whole lot more. The really insidious thing about Grimes is that not only is he belly-laugh funny, he is well-read. The allusions and references to things scientific and literary actually wage war with allusions and references to the pop culture in this twisted tale of all things overloaded. Grimes is conversant with complexity theory, modern philosophy, stock market dynamics, information theory, cosmology, as well as testosterone and cyberspace. In reading something that would appeal to, say, the viewers of American Pie, one can simultaneously smirk with satisfaction at knowing the intelligentsia-droppings scattered throughout. This is no dumbed-down cartoon network pseudo-novel--well, it's a pseudo-novel, but one with Film Potential.

What Grimes should be doing with his talent for wordsmithing and laugh out loud satirical thrusts is writing teen exploitation scripts for Tristar or HBO while moonlighting for Saturday Night Live. Come to think of it, he probably is.

Tom Grimes has a better handle on life as we are currently surviving it today than just about any author I have read. ...Through the means of a novel he is able to give insights on this point in history. Our submersion in the pavillion of our computer(s) as a means of programmed thinking and responding and communicating; our universal reliance on drugs (the prescribed versions) to balance our perceptions and reactions to the world out there; our numbed and dumbed response to other people and to events at large; our homogenous vocabulary populated with email-quality words, often not even spellchecked or proofread; our dreamscheme altered view of the future and the educational tools to get there in a hurry. Tom Grimes takes all of this potentially threatening view of present day reality and from it creates a comedy of 'epic' proportions. You find yourself laughing till tears flow on nearly every fast-paced page of this short book, marvelling how bright and informed and clever it is written, only to relax a moment and realize that from another vantage all of this 'truth' that seems so entertaining is SCARY! I think this author understands comedy so well that he has been able to create a very important book, an electron microscopic view of where we are and where that might just lead. And in addition to this gift, he has successfully created indelible characters with a story, taken on its own merit, that is a wholly satisfying novel. What wit, what insight, and what writing gifts are here! This is one fine new book. ...

An incorrupt cop in the near future learns a lot about the ugly side of pop culture and media manipulation when he investigates the death of two policemen.

Grimes's point that people don't think anything is real until they see it on TV, is a sharp one, as are the characterizations in this novel. Another telling point is that when it is revealed that a gangsta- rap tape may have inspired the murders, that the tape becomes the new mega-seller!

This is VERY dark satire, but unlike many of this type, Grimes does not skimp on the details and logic of his mystery to make his point. Great, thought provoking, entertaining stuff.