"The Anomalies"
(Reviewed by Poornima Apte OCT 21, 2003)
Perhaps, there is a reason why a certain online bookstore chooses to package Goebel's The Anomalies with the latest Harry Potter tome. One thing that
is strikingly similar between the two is the central protagonist's disillusionment
with everyday, boring old Muggles or as in Goebel's book, the "humanoids."
Luster is an African American male, the middle born of seven boys, the rest of whom all deal in drugs and are named Jerome. He lives in Kentucky spending much of his life at his job as a commissary runner at the local dog-racing track. Luster, as he puts it, is just "biding time" until he makes it big. "Some call what I am doing now 'paying my dues,' he says, 'others call it building character. I call it 'suffering.' My dream is to one day not suffer as much as I suffer now. I hope to be a rock star, a famous orator, a television personality on the Labor Day telethon, or poet, a philosopher king, a leader of men, and/or a rock star supreme. I want to rock it like Chuck Norris on the tilt-a-whirl."
Luster hopes to realize his dreams of rock stardom with his band-The Anomalies. About the one thread uniting the band's freaky members is their hatred of the humanoids. Each of Anomalies' members is colorful to say the least. There is 80 year-old Opal, a sex-crazy chick who is this close to being permanently being put away by her nieces. Then there is eight year-old Ember who happens to trot along because Opal baby-sits her while Ember's parents become increasingly non-existent. The band's drummer is Satanist, hot babe, Arora, who openly rebels against her minister father. Finally there is Ray, an Iraqi who is here in Kentucky only because he wants to seek forgiveness from the man he unintentionally wounded in Gulf War I. The soldier he wounded wore a Kentucky sports logo, which helps Ray narrow his focus somewhat.
Together the band tries to make their first break and make a name for themselves in the rock world. Goebel, a young 22 year-old, himself an ex-lead singer of a punk band, The Mullets, seems to know a thing or two about the rocky road to celebrity. His prose is incisive yet often witty and he tells the story in brief spurts through the eyes of the band members. Other perspectives as related to the original members (boss, father etc.) are added and they add even more color to the situations.
Sometimes Goebel's prose slips into pure youth angst: "A humanoid is what you are. You are another pretty face in the ugly crowd. You are a cop in a doughnut shop. You are programmed to the end. You can be read from start to finish in one sitting." Eight year-old Ember's parents abandon her with her babysitter, Opal, and head off to Cancun. Such events have to be taken with a suspension of disbelief especially for us "humanoids."
Barring a few bumps however, The Anomalies is a promising debut for Goebel. The book will draw eager readers from the early twenties set. Despite all the angst, Goebel is smart enough to know that like The Anomalies, he has to make it in the real "humanoids" world. He knows just how far to push the envelope to achieve a critique of boring middle America. After all, humanoids or no humanoids, as one character in the novel puts it, "their cash all looks the same."
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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)
- The Anomalies (April 2003)
- Torture the Artist (October 2004)
- Vincent
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Book Marks:
- Official website for Joey Goebel
- Tastes Like Chickent interview with Joey Goebel
- Short Story: Surrealist Party by Joey Goebel
- January Magazine review of The Anomalies
- Indie Workshop review of The Anomalies
- Baltimore City Paper review of The Anomalies
- PopMatters review of Torture the Artist
- CityPaperOnline review of Torture the Artist
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About the Author:
Joey Goebel was born and raised in Henderson, Kentucky. He has a BA in English from Brescia University in Owensboro, Kentucky and his short stories have appeared in two anthologies. He is the former lead singer of the punk band The Mullets (Higher Step Records) that toured for five years in the Midwest. He now sings for the band The Novembrists.
