Rating: 
Summary: Forget the Rat Poison and Join the Rat Race
Review: Pontius Feeb -- or Ponty, as Nelson has dubbed him -- has authored such indistinguished historical oddities as Where did Amerigo?: Vespucci and the New World and Czech and Sea: Dvorak's Voyages to America. He also writes for trade journals. Perhaps you've heard of them? The Journal of Plasma Beam Annealing and Bar Code Solutions. However, in spite of all the credits on Feeb's unimpressive resume, he's just been fired, and given his dire straits, he'll do anything. So, after running down a cop (while lying down in his Ford Tempo), then shacking up with some college kids, Feeb writes a novel. The tome which he produces is an adventure entitled Death Rat, a tall tail about a rat with a long tale, for this rat is 6 feet long and it menaced the small town of Holey, Minnesota, back in the 1800s. Now, Feeb is an old Feeb and old Feebs aren't exactly marketable as rugged and adventuresome. So, Ponty recruits Jack Ryback, a co-worker at Medieval Burger, to pose as him and market the book. Ryback, being familiar with Ponty's work, sells the book to a publisher as a work of non-fiction. And thus begins the adventures and mishaps of Jack and Ponty's attempt to fool Minnesota and all of America into believing Death Rat is a work of non-fiction. Mike Nelson's Death Rat is populated with a wonderfully wild and quirky cast of characters, from the jealous Gus Bromstad who'll stop at nothing to ruin Ponty and the success of Death Rat to Bromstad's four bumbling "great" Danes from Den Institut Dansk, from the homey, unexcitable folks of Holey to the always over-the-top, and master of funk, King Leo (whom you can also call the Sovereign Ruler of Groove, the Pharoah of Funk, Maharaja of the Mojo, Caeser the Pleaser, or the Exchequer of the Milk Chocolate Soul). And then, of course, there's King Leo's entourage: Sir Shock-a-Lot, Tarzan Moe, Billy Moonbeam, Kaptain Kinetic, et. al. The question is, will Bromstad reveal Jack and Ponty's little secret, or will they be successful in pulling off their deception?
Rating:
Summary: It's worth the time
Review: The question that needs to be answered before reading any book is: is it worth the effort and time? Quite simply, Death Rat! is a yes. Filled with the wit and humor of Mike Nelson, and a book that encompasses the feel and atmosphere of Minnesota, Death Rat! should be on your reading list. The story provides insight to the celebrity world that Mike Nelson never found himself fitting into, and insight into the publishing industry, that from the novel Mike Nelson has little affection for. Enjoyable and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: It's worth the time
Review: The question that needs to be answered before reading any book is: is it worth the effort and time? Quite simply, Death Rat! is a yes. Filled with the wit and humor of Mike Nelson, and a book that encompasses the feel and atmosphere of Minnesota, Death Rat! should be on your reading list. The story provides insight to the celebrity world that Mike Nelson never found himself fitting into, and insight into the publishing industry, that from the novel Mike Nelson has little affection for. Enjoyable and entertaining.
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