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Life Kills
Life Kills follows the dark journey and twisted mind ravines of a mysterious unnamed terrorist as he goes about his business. On his flight, stewards Bubbles and Sparkles, pilots Brad and Chad, and a bunch of burnt out z-list hackster celebrities face their own particular brands of demons. The terrorist anti-hero faces terrible choices along the way, torn between burning passion and mindless passivity; and throughout, the Inflight Infotainment system lurks, ever present but becoming a more powerful and sinister force as the story unfolds. In short snapshots, Life Kills ridicules the many contradictions in the way people live their lives, with an authentic humour that belies the anger boiling beneath the surface. For hipsters, boomers, and anything in between.
110 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 28, 2018
Life Kills is short as novels go. Which feels apt, since there’s no punctuation except full stops at the end of each section, rare hyphens (apart from word breaks at the end of lines), and apostrophes, occasionally misplaced, as in ‘you’re out of you’re fucking mind’ (p. 26). The resultant breathless momentum of this astutely spaced, well-laid-out text made it challenging to read aloud to my partner, but we shared lots of laughs.
And yet this always scintillating and at times ecstatic satire about a terrorist stalking a jet-load of z-list celebs provokes more than hysterics. By the end, one of the most vacuous characters, copilot Chad, achieves an epiphany that lifts the whole glorious flight of warped fancy to a more poignant plane. Why, my partner wondered, didn’t Chad have limbs and a body? Maybe he’s only a token pilot (we’re all being replaced by technology)?
While the characters exist above all to explore ideas, via their acutely rendered voices this over-the-top manic piss-take transmits reality much more convincingly than the predictably PC, tame realist fiction that rules and is killing Oz literature.
Which reminds me – I noticed nothing distinctly Australian except on the copyright page. And fair enough. Novels as edgy as Life Kills don’t get off the ground in this country. And Sleepers Publishing, which had the spunk and a big enough vision to take a punt on it, has recently folded: no government funding. Life kills, indeed, or just subsides into terminal inertia, numbed by marketing hype and media bombardment. My only regret on having read this wildly original debut is the absence of further books by Vertigan.
And yet this always scintillating and at times ecstatic satire about a terrorist stalking a jet-load of z-list celebs provokes more than hysterics. By the end, one of the most vacuous characters, copilot Chad, achieves an epiphany that lifts the whole glorious flight of warped fancy to a more poignant plane. Why, my partner wondered, didn’t Chad have limbs and a body? Maybe he’s only a token pilot (we’re all being replaced by technology)?
While the characters exist above all to explore ideas, via their acutely rendered voices this over-the-top manic piss-take transmits reality much more convincingly than the predictably PC, tame realist fiction that rules and is killing Oz literature.
Which reminds me – I noticed nothing distinctly Australian except on the copyright page. And fair enough. Novels as edgy as Life Kills don’t get off the ground in this country. And Sleepers Publishing, which had the spunk and a big enough vision to take a punt on it, has recently folded: no government funding. Life kills, indeed, or just subsides into terminal inertia, numbed by marketing hype and media bombardment. My only regret on having read this wildly original debut is the absence of further books by Vertigan.
October 29, 2013
When I first started reading this book I was shocked at how my brain could piece together the grammer missing. It's amazing to see your brain go in to autopilot, it even changed the voices so I knew which character was saying what.
But I find with novellas you do have to dedicate some time and read it in one go. After a while of only being able to read half an hour of it a day I felt like I wasn't getting any further into the story. The characters weren't really developing and the story seemed to be at a standstill. I have to admit, I didn't finish the book for this reason. I feel bad, because it was really good, but I just couldn't do it! I felt like I was reading nothing even though it was funny and clever.
Maybe I will pick it back up when I'm away on holidays but my advice is definitely to make time for it and smash it out in one go. Otherwise you won't enjoy it.
But I find with novellas you do have to dedicate some time and read it in one go. After a while of only being able to read half an hour of it a day I felt like I wasn't getting any further into the story. The characters weren't really developing and the story seemed to be at a standstill. I have to admit, I didn't finish the book for this reason. I feel bad, because it was really good, but I just couldn't do it! I felt like I was reading nothing even though it was funny and clever.
Maybe I will pick it back up when I'm away on holidays but my advice is definitely to make time for it and smash it out in one go. Otherwise you won't enjoy it.
November 28, 2011
Life Kills is insanely hilarious and disturbingly sane. It may be the funniest and least complacent novel I've ever read.
October 31, 2011
Fucking wow. Like Bret Easton Ellis on speed. Mindgasmic.
December 4, 2014
'Flying High' meets 'On the Road': this is one outta the box.
It kills.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews