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Mostly Hero
Femme is under a magic spell to kill her lover, Hero. Hero is on a mission to discover if Femme’s Great Aunt - the old lady who lives alone in a skyscraper - is his own disreputable grandmother. Master villain Great Aunt needs to know whether or not her favourite niece, Femme, is in love with her arch-enemy, Hero. Meantime, Freddie, Femme’s lovelorn cousin, must seek out and destroy Great Aunt otherwise his sweet-natured fiancée, Monique Frostique, absolutely refuses to marry him. This novella has it all: life, death, life after death, life in spite of death, love, truth, deception, good guys, bad guys and the guy who considered himself good but now isn’t so sure.
An entertaining and strangely spiritual tale.
About the Author
Anna Burns is the critically-acclaimed author of the novels No Bones and Little Constructions. Her first book won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Born and raised in Belfast in Northern Ireland, Anna now lives by the sea in East Sussex.
An entertaining and strangely spiritual tale.
About the Author
Anna Burns is the critically-acclaimed author of the novels No Bones and Little Constructions. Her first book won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Born and raised in Belfast in Northern Ireland, Anna now lives by the sea in East Sussex.
74 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 13, 2014
41 people are currently reading
839 people want to read
About the author
Anna Burns
16 books1,148 followersAnna Burns (born 1962) is an Irish author. She was born in Belfast and moved to London in 1987. Her first novel, No Bones, is an account of a girl's life growing up in Belfast during the Troubles.
Awards:
Winner of the 2001 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
Shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize (No Bones)
Winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize (Milkman)
National Book Critics Circle Award 2019 Nominee (Milkman)
Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 Nominee (Milkman)
Winner of the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award (Milkman)
Awards:
Winner of the 2001 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
Shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize (No Bones)
Winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize (Milkman)
National Book Critics Circle Award 2019 Nominee (Milkman)
Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 Nominee (Milkman)
Winner of the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award (Milkman)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews
February 9, 2021
Standing up for old-fashioned values of black and white morality.
This crazy little nugget from the winner of the Booker prize for Milkman is a brutal satire of the superhero phenomenon. It ridicules the mindlessness of violence and the glorification of the same in popular culture, and that with a touch of feminism.
Here, the author turns the popular trope on its head, swapping the handsome young male hero with a very old granny-like figure with magnificent powers, who is hell-bent on achieving her goal by any means, possible or literally impossible!
Still eighty-two, still with fifty-seven bullets in her, still dying, and with a blood-trail resembling a post-structuralist anti-principle of a traditional abstracted countercomposition, she was softly cursing and willing herself not to die.
February '21
This crazy little nugget from the winner of the Booker prize for Milkman is a brutal satire of the superhero phenomenon. It ridicules the mindlessness of violence and the glorification of the same in popular culture, and that with a touch of feminism.
Here, the author turns the popular trope on its head, swapping the handsome young male hero with a very old granny-like figure with magnificent powers, who is hell-bent on achieving her goal by any means, possible or literally impossible!
Still eighty-two, still with fifty-seven bullets in her, still dying, and with a blood-trail resembling a post-structuralist anti-principle of a traditional abstracted countercomposition, she was softly cursing and willing herself not to die.
February '21
January 20, 2020
Anna Burns' third book was first published exclusively as an e-book, but thanks to the success of her brilliant Milkman, it is now available in this print miniature thanks to Faber.
It is a rather curious post-modern subversion of fairytale and comic-book storytelling. As in Milkman, the main protagonists are only named indirectly. The characters and situations are pure fantasy, but the book is an entertaining and often surprising read. Probably one for completists only.
It is a rather curious post-modern subversion of fairytale and comic-book storytelling. As in Milkman, the main protagonists are only named indirectly. The characters and situations are pure fantasy, but the book is an entertaining and often surprising read. Probably one for completists only.
November 29, 2021
I am partial to a good run-on sentence, and Anna Burns knows the kind I like, the kind that feels uncontrolled and yet is anything but, that heaps clause upon clause and absurdity upon improbability, and inverts words for an effect that is more comic than it has any right to be.
How could he have fallen in love when, one, he didn’t fall in love; two, he never mixed personal with professional; three, hardly ever did he allow personal; four, he was descended from morally-excellent superhero stock whereas she was descended from fatale, fall-guy and ultra-villain stock; five, she was intermittently trying to kill him; six, she would be his second cousin if Great Aunt proved to be his grandmother; and seven, he was a legs man and she was not legs.
Milkman was probably my favourite novel of the last few years and this 100-page novella is not five stars in the way that was five stars, but it’s marvellous nonetheless. It’s marvellous not only because I spent the summer watching ridiculous superhero movies in a completely-out-of-character-I-must-save-my-sanity-after-testing-positive-for-Covid-one-day-before-my-flight-to-see-my-parents-if-I-cannot-travel-I-will-buy-a-TV way, but also because it furthers what I understand Burns’ larger project to be: telling the story of the Troubles in a non-dreary-lit-fic-full-of-tragedy-and-teeth-gnashing way. So we have superheroes who gradually come to the realization that they are more than a little villainous, and we have reckonings of the type:
What if he was neither “super-this” nor “super-that” but instead just average and ordinary? To be average and ordinary equated in hero’s mind with being sub-average and less than ordinary, which itself equated with not being acceptable, not being respectable, not being lovable – though of course he himself would never think in such New Age, self-absorbed terms.
And we also have my favourite description all year, as a dying antagonist , early on in her (lengthy) dying, has “a blood-trail resembling a post-structuralist anti-principle of traditional abstracted countercomposition.”
All in all reading Burns is kind of like being kidnapped by a garrulous Irish aunt, locked in her kitchen, forced to listen to her stories to cup after cup after cup (about twenty) of tea and yet not really wanting to get away, when it comes down to it.
How could he have fallen in love when, one, he didn’t fall in love; two, he never mixed personal with professional; three, hardly ever did he allow personal; four, he was descended from morally-excellent superhero stock whereas she was descended from fatale, fall-guy and ultra-villain stock; five, she was intermittently trying to kill him; six, she would be his second cousin if Great Aunt proved to be his grandmother; and seven, he was a legs man and she was not legs.
Milkman was probably my favourite novel of the last few years and this 100-page novella is not five stars in the way that was five stars, but it’s marvellous nonetheless. It’s marvellous not only because I spent the summer watching ridiculous superhero movies in a completely-out-of-character-I-must-save-my-sanity-after-testing-positive-for-Covid-one-day-before-my-flight-to-see-my-parents-if-I-cannot-travel-I-will-buy-a-TV way, but also because it furthers what I understand Burns’ larger project to be: telling the story of the Troubles in a non-dreary-lit-fic-full-of-tragedy-and-teeth-gnashing way. So we have superheroes who gradually come to the realization that they are more than a little villainous, and we have reckonings of the type:
What if he was neither “super-this” nor “super-that” but instead just average and ordinary? To be average and ordinary equated in hero’s mind with being sub-average and less than ordinary, which itself equated with not being acceptable, not being respectable, not being lovable – though of course he himself would never think in such New Age, self-absorbed terms.
And we also have my favourite description all year, as a dying antagonist , early on in her (lengthy) dying, has “a blood-trail resembling a post-structuralist anti-principle of traditional abstracted countercomposition.”
All in all reading Burns is kind of like being kidnapped by a garrulous Irish aunt, locked in her kitchen, forced to listen to her stories to cup after cup after cup (about twenty) of tea and yet not really wanting to get away, when it comes down to it.
April 11, 2020
“It is unusual but not impossible to have a corpse do a killing, any type of killing, just as long as it is done within a certain timeframe. ‘Corps don’t live long’, was the explanation offered by top scientific experts.(...)Great Aunt was dead, definitively dead, so it had been her corpse that had taken the initiative.
Anna Burns, que não me canso de elogiar, faz uma pequena paródia ao mundo dos super-heróis, onde há todo o género de vilões e mulheres fatais munidos dos seus clichés, mas tudo levado ao absurdo com muita inteligência e graça.
“Murders they might be, but in no way could anybody accuse them of prudish judgementalism. Each to their own. That was their motto. Live and let live. That was another motto, though it must to be said not really one of theirs.
Anna Burns, que não me canso de elogiar, faz uma pequena paródia ao mundo dos super-heróis, onde há todo o género de vilões e mulheres fatais munidos dos seus clichés, mas tudo levado ao absurdo com muita inteligência e graça.
“Murders they might be, but in no way could anybody accuse them of prudish judgementalism. Each to their own. That was their motto. Live and let live. That was another motto, though it must to be said not really one of theirs.
March 1, 2021
I find it hard to engage with satire, or parody, when it concerns genres I don’t normally watch or read (see my review of The Fire Gospel). And that's how I mostly felt about this long short-story of the superhero/villain genre, though it ends up a great metaphor for our mental defenses and (mis)communications with others. I enjoyed Burns’ intelligence and wit.
December 24, 2019
Synopsis
This is a spoof take on the Marvel story tales of superheroes taking on organised crime. It’s very funny and features a number of great, exaggerated, characters.
‘Hero’ woos “femme” despite the fact that ”he was a legs man and she was not legs” (37)
Highlights
The characterisation is so tongue- in - cheek. The villains are the best and in particular Great Aunt (82 yrs old);
“she had not further for this world” (35/61),
and Monique Frostique
“the ne plus ultra of femme fatale villains” (58).
Monique reminded me of the eponymous lead in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita (a book Anna Burns told me was one of her favourites).
Lowlights
It’s a tiny book (novella) and the final quarter isn’t quite as strong as Hero wraps things up.
Historical & Literary
This is a re- release as part of Faber & Fabers ninetieth year celebration. It was first published in 2014 and immediately preceded Milkman
Author background & Reviews
Since its original publication Anna Burns has achieved worldwide commercial success and fame following the surprise win for Milkman in the Booker Prize 2018.
I met Anna Burns at the time of her Booker win (Oct 2018) and she was in very obvious (back) pain. Meeting her again in December 2019 at a Booker Foundation reading at Brighton University she looks ten years younger and transformed.
Anna Burns in the Brighton University conversation with her Faber editor Louise Joyner made a number of interesting comments (on her style, and specifically on Milkman):
*Anna’s writing style best described as being like a jigsaw. She gets the pieces, but. It always sure how to join them up.
• sometimes has the end of a sentence then the rest of the phrase comes along.
*Annas characters (on the page) dictate the narrative to Anna.” It can be difficult dealing with them”! She wanted more on the ‘ wee sisters’ but it didn’t come.
*Hearing the words helps. Anna used to write while walking, to get the rhythm, using a dictaphone to record.
*Hard men and their Mums. Contrast their violence at large and fear of Mum. In discussion about the power of women during the Troubles Anna mentioned Dolours Price. The subject of the highly acclaimed, multiple prize listed Patrick Radden Keefe’s, 2019, Say Nothing (non Fiction). It sounds as though this is an excellent companion piece to Milkman
*Psychoanalytical community in Australia focused on addictions. This was a surprise to Anna.
Quotations
All feature Monique Frostique (!)
“Frostique had a gun in her hand. Such cool advanced flirting”(77)
“MF was looking fabulous and deadly” (77)
“MF had herself been, and probably always would be, pure alpha- villain material”(93)
Monique’s suitor is Freddie Ditchlingtonne’ly. Freddie shoots Great Aunt:
”auntricide, not theft, was the qualification for marrying Monique”(60)
Recommend
A great way to get a feel for Anna Burns writing style, and highly recommended as a precursor to Milkman. Fans of Milkman will enjoy this, I think, while the many Milkman sceptics will like this much more.
This is a spoof take on the Marvel story tales of superheroes taking on organised crime. It’s very funny and features a number of great, exaggerated, characters.
‘Hero’ woos “femme” despite the fact that ”he was a legs man and she was not legs” (37)
Highlights
The characterisation is so tongue- in - cheek. The villains are the best and in particular Great Aunt (82 yrs old);
“she had not further for this world” (35/61),
and Monique Frostique
“the ne plus ultra of femme fatale villains” (58).
Monique reminded me of the eponymous lead in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita (a book Anna Burns told me was one of her favourites).
Lowlights
It’s a tiny book (novella) and the final quarter isn’t quite as strong as Hero wraps things up.
Historical & Literary
This is a re- release as part of Faber & Fabers ninetieth year celebration. It was first published in 2014 and immediately preceded Milkman
Author background & Reviews
Since its original publication Anna Burns has achieved worldwide commercial success and fame following the surprise win for Milkman in the Booker Prize 2018.
I met Anna Burns at the time of her Booker win (Oct 2018) and she was in very obvious (back) pain. Meeting her again in December 2019 at a Booker Foundation reading at Brighton University she looks ten years younger and transformed.
Anna Burns in the Brighton University conversation with her Faber editor Louise Joyner made a number of interesting comments (on her style, and specifically on Milkman):
*Anna’s writing style best described as being like a jigsaw. She gets the pieces, but. It always sure how to join them up.
• sometimes has the end of a sentence then the rest of the phrase comes along.
*Annas characters (on the page) dictate the narrative to Anna.” It can be difficult dealing with them”! She wanted more on the ‘ wee sisters’ but it didn’t come.
*Hearing the words helps. Anna used to write while walking, to get the rhythm, using a dictaphone to record.
*Hard men and their Mums. Contrast their violence at large and fear of Mum. In discussion about the power of women during the Troubles Anna mentioned Dolours Price. The subject of the highly acclaimed, multiple prize listed Patrick Radden Keefe’s, 2019, Say Nothing (non Fiction). It sounds as though this is an excellent companion piece to Milkman
*Psychoanalytical community in Australia focused on addictions. This was a surprise to Anna.
Quotations
All feature Monique Frostique (!)
“Frostique had a gun in her hand. Such cool advanced flirting”(77)
“MF was looking fabulous and deadly” (77)
“MF had herself been, and probably always would be, pure alpha- villain material”(93)
Monique’s suitor is Freddie Ditchlingtonne’ly. Freddie shoots Great Aunt:
”auntricide, not theft, was the qualification for marrying Monique”(60)
Recommend
A great way to get a feel for Anna Burns writing style, and highly recommended as a precursor to Milkman. Fans of Milkman will enjoy this, I think, while the many Milkman sceptics will like this much more.
February 6, 2021
Anna Burns's novella Mostly Hero was originally published in 2014, in the long gap between her second novel Little Constructions (2007) and the brilliant Booker winning Milkman (2018), but was reissued by Faber in their Faber Stories series to mark their 90th anniversary.
Faber's blurb describes it as "the hilarious, hell-raising descendant of Quentin Tarantino and the Brothers Grimm," which isn't a bad description, although for me it had shades of Roald Dahl or even a rather darker, more adult David Walliams in its humour.
It's a breathless, read-in-one-sitting, exaggerated recasting of the superhero / supervillian story, such as this scene when Femme Fatale's Great Aunt (who is actually a world-domination desiring Supervillian) finally meet her last death (her one hundred and sixty first):
After she was shot, she staggered about the room in quite the required fashion, knocking things off shelves, everything off tables, flinging arms, splattering blood. This proceeded for two full minutes, with aunt clutching everyday items as if realising these were treasures dearer to her than anything, before dropping them and staggering with equal intensity to another piece of bric-a-brac somewhere else. Yes, a good two minutes, which shows that just because the last death must occur, doesn’t mean it can’t be a long, drawn-out Shakespearean one.
and actually her death is drawn out a good deal longer, managing to kill her killer and a rival super-villain in the process, the second while dead (shades of The Princess Bride and being 'almost dead').
It's all a lot of fun - although a rather minor* work compared to Little Constructions and certainly not at the brilliance of Milkman, so 3 stars (3.5) but still recommended, particularly for anyone who has read all of Burns' novels.
(* although this review from Lee Foust https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... made me sit-up as he makes a clearer link with the troubles, the source of Milkman and Little Constructions, than perhaps had occured to me while reading)
Faber's blurb describes it as "the hilarious, hell-raising descendant of Quentin Tarantino and the Brothers Grimm," which isn't a bad description, although for me it had shades of Roald Dahl or even a rather darker, more adult David Walliams in its humour.
It's a breathless, read-in-one-sitting, exaggerated recasting of the superhero / supervillian story, such as this scene when Femme Fatale's Great Aunt (who is actually a world-domination desiring Supervillian) finally meet her last death (her one hundred and sixty first):
After she was shot, she staggered about the room in quite the required fashion, knocking things off shelves, everything off tables, flinging arms, splattering blood. This proceeded for two full minutes, with aunt clutching everyday items as if realising these were treasures dearer to her than anything, before dropping them and staggering with equal intensity to another piece of bric-a-brac somewhere else. Yes, a good two minutes, which shows that just because the last death must occur, doesn’t mean it can’t be a long, drawn-out Shakespearean one.
and actually her death is drawn out a good deal longer, managing to kill her killer and a rival super-villain in the process, the second while dead (shades of The Princess Bride and being 'almost dead').
It's all a lot of fun - although a rather minor* work compared to Little Constructions and certainly not at the brilliance of Milkman, so 3 stars (3.5) but still recommended, particularly for anyone who has read all of Burns' novels.
(* although this review from Lee Foust https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... made me sit-up as he makes a clearer link with the troubles, the source of Milkman and Little Constructions, than perhaps had occured to me while reading)
August 3, 2022
This is a truly curious book - I have to say it was not the quick and easy read I was expecting but it had its strange charm that did draw you in. From its reference to architypes used more as names that titles (Femme Fatal, Great Aunt, superhero) or the breathless narrative which you could imagine being said at a pace - almost gushing forth - the whole book has a striking and unusual approach to telling its story.
And the story itself - although presented in a comic book in your face style there are subtleties and nuances which feel like they were hidden from casual view which make the characters all the more human even as the dialogue gets more ridiculous.
This is a clever book that takes time and yes for me, effort to appreciate but it is there and I have to say I think I appreciate it more for that. Another clever and interesting entry in to the faber90 series
And the story itself - although presented in a comic book in your face style there are subtleties and nuances which feel like they were hidden from casual view which make the characters all the more human even as the dialogue gets more ridiculous.
This is a clever book that takes time and yes for me, effort to appreciate but it is there and I have to say I think I appreciate it more for that. Another clever and interesting entry in to the faber90 series
June 25, 2024
This is the third Anna Burns text I've read in the last month, since I casually picked up Milkman and devoured it in only a couple of sittings. Although that novel, her previous novel No Bones, and this short novel or longish short story, all treat of the Northern Irish experience of violence, vendetta, and the PTSD of their female heroines, I find Burns's prose style, aplomb, and terror-based humor really fabulous. She is a great stylist.
As an added bonus, Mostly Hero uses an absurd version of superhero comic language and situation to describe more of the Northern Irish civil war experience, taking the piss out of that tradition and drawing, in my opinion, the obvious parallel between humankind's worst idiocy--violence and warfare--and our so-called pop culture (really corporate/state propaganda) art--all that Star Wars and Marvel comix crap that indoctrinates our children into believing in the overly simplistic good guys/bad guys scenario, that heroes are invulnerable (quite useful in garnering recruits for the military), that violence solves every problem, and that violence and coercion through the threat of violence are the best measures of manhood, dignity, and pride.
Let my children read fables of anarcho-syndicalism!
--------------------
Just presented this novel novel to students. They enjoyed the humor, for the most part, but didn't seem to feel it as deeply as I feel it as an important take on how we cover our crimes in mythic hero and villain thought. Still, I loved the reread. I'd forgotten that Anna Burns and I are the same age. 1962 produced a few great writers: Burns, Paul Beatty, Donna Tartt, and yours, truly. Heh heh. Putting myself in rather illustrious company I know.
As an added bonus, Mostly Hero uses an absurd version of superhero comic language and situation to describe more of the Northern Irish civil war experience, taking the piss out of that tradition and drawing, in my opinion, the obvious parallel between humankind's worst idiocy--violence and warfare--and our so-called pop culture (really corporate/state propaganda) art--all that Star Wars and Marvel comix crap that indoctrinates our children into believing in the overly simplistic good guys/bad guys scenario, that heroes are invulnerable (quite useful in garnering recruits for the military), that violence solves every problem, and that violence and coercion through the threat of violence are the best measures of manhood, dignity, and pride.
Let my children read fables of anarcho-syndicalism!
--------------------
Just presented this novel novel to students. They enjoyed the humor, for the most part, but didn't seem to feel it as deeply as I feel it as an important take on how we cover our crimes in mythic hero and villain thought. Still, I loved the reread. I'd forgotten that Anna Burns and I are the same age. 1962 produced a few great writers: Burns, Paul Beatty, Donna Tartt, and yours, truly. Heh heh. Putting myself in rather illustrious company I know.
May 25, 2020
3.5 stars
A story about intimacy and vulnerability couched in a parody of superheroes and villains--just the kind of bizarre but affecting story that Anna Burns excels at.
A story about intimacy and vulnerability couched in a parody of superheroes and villains--just the kind of bizarre but affecting story that Anna Burns excels at.
January 10, 2020
Cute and quick. Not my cup of tea. You can see in this the bones of what works so well for Milkman but Mostly Hero was a little forgettable.
December 25, 2019
Hilariously wonderful! It's got a superhero aptly called 'hero', a femme fatale called 'femme' and the villains (Great Aunt and Monique Frostique) are even better, but it's more than just a brilliant spoof on superhero movies/books. I already adored Milkman, so excited to read her other books as well.
July 22, 2023
3.5 ⭐ very meta, self-reflexive, postmodern, at times confusing, but also fun?
November 17, 2019
3.5/5 rounded up to 4 🌟
March 25, 2021
Very readable but honestly quite mediocre, somewhat funny at times but never really progressed beyond that? Imo it was an allegory for cycles of abuse in families but honestly considering how Burns basically tells us the novella is about love towards the end I think our opinions probably align.
Still, apart from the use of some fun vocabulary and oblique references to post-structuralist humour of some sort, it doesn’t feel particularly uwu literary or meaningful. It’s enjoyable though.
Still, apart from the use of some fun vocabulary and oblique references to post-structuralist humour of some sort, it doesn’t feel particularly uwu literary or meaningful. It’s enjoyable though.
March 2, 2024
Lene gave me this story as “a snack” and a snack it was!! Fun, nurturing, clever, short-lived to tickle your brain a bit. Thank you, Lene! Excited to read Milkman soon!
August 18, 2020
Definitely one of the strangest little books I've ever read.
'Mostly Hero' is an exceptionally apt title for a parody which chronicles a hero who is strong, powerful, intelligent, brave... and above all, human. It's a hilariously mad exploration of the idea that beneath all of the heroicness and villainy accessible to mankind, a hero can end up being a villain, and a villain can end up being a hero.
The characters are superb, particularly Great Aunt. A gangster-granny and a half! The exposure of hero as a wheedling and moody, deluded individual and femme as having far more heart than she originally appears to is what makes the entire story. The whole idea of someone being led their whole life to believe they are one thing and then having an identity crisis when they find out that all is not as it seems, is also paramount. Only Great Aunt remains true to her outrageous, deceitful self, all the way through to the very end. I also really liked the setting: a mad, impossible world from the start, almost dreamlike, it knocks out any limitations our regular world may place on any chain of events.
So... why three stars? Well, as previously stated, this book is MAD - and sometimes incoherently so. Despite the whole idea of crazy, illogical ideas all having a home in the world of 'Mostly Hero', humans having nine (or more) lives and corpses delivering prophecies and last words still feel like plot devices. I even googled 'corpses that speak' to see if I was missing some important historical reference, but there were none to be found. It's also not the easiest read and I did find I needed just the tiniest amount of stamina, in some highly convoluted places, to continue.
Not quite in the realm of 'Milkman', but still a fairly unforgettable little gem of a read. Also, proof that I can finish an Anna Burns book in a day! Yay!
EDIT: The whole humans-having-multiple-lives thing is an obvious reference to Marvel superheroes and the likes who are miraculously resurrected numerous times, but corpses speaking is still pretty unheard of.
'Mostly Hero' is an exceptionally apt title for a parody which chronicles a hero who is strong, powerful, intelligent, brave... and above all, human. It's a hilariously mad exploration of the idea that beneath all of the heroicness and villainy accessible to mankind, a hero can end up being a villain, and a villain can end up being a hero.
The characters are superb, particularly Great Aunt. A gangster-granny and a half! The exposure of hero as a wheedling and moody, deluded individual and femme as having far more heart than she originally appears to is what makes the entire story. The whole idea of someone being led their whole life to believe they are one thing and then having an identity crisis when they find out that all is not as it seems, is also paramount. Only Great Aunt remains true to her outrageous, deceitful self, all the way through to the very end. I also really liked the setting: a mad, impossible world from the start, almost dreamlike, it knocks out any limitations our regular world may place on any chain of events.
So... why three stars? Well, as previously stated, this book is MAD - and sometimes incoherently so. Despite the whole idea of crazy, illogical ideas all having a home in the world of 'Mostly Hero', humans having nine (or more) lives and corpses delivering prophecies and last words still feel like plot devices. I even googled 'corpses that speak' to see if I was missing some important historical reference, but there were none to be found. It's also not the easiest read and I did find I needed just the tiniest amount of stamina, in some highly convoluted places, to continue.
Not quite in the realm of 'Milkman', but still a fairly unforgettable little gem of a read. Also, proof that I can finish an Anna Burns book in a day! Yay!
EDIT: The whole humans-having-multiple-lives thing is an obvious reference to Marvel superheroes and the likes who are miraculously resurrected numerous times, but corpses speaking is still pretty unheard of.
November 9, 2023
Very clever and sardonic but the gimmick wore me down very quickly. We get it superhero comics are samey and predictable. And yeah there's more to this novella than that but the style got on my nerves a bit too much to make an enjoyable read I'm sorry Anna Burns
January 20, 2021
Extraordinary and mind-bending, which was exactly what I needed so much this week. A perfect reminder about how ordinary all of us are and how little life depends on our decisions.
May 17, 2020
I read and liked Milkman a while ago, so I was excited to dive into more of Burns' work. I don't think I could have been more disappointed, unfortunately. If you know anything about my reading habits, you know I don't like fantasy, and that extends to superhero stories.
But this is a parody of a superhero story! And the inside cover describes it as "hilarious!" Sadly, it is not hilarious. Not one joke landed for me. The cartoonish characters didn't make me laugh at the ridiculous nature of comic books. It was just annoying.
The book takes stereotypes from comics, and gives very convenient ways out -- superheroes and supervillains can die hundreds of times -- to maintain the narrative. Never mind that one character managed to murder an entire family of heroes/villains with no explanation as to how this "many deaths" rule was circumvented. The Great Aunt supervillain character is simply above all these rules, apparently. Except for when she's not.
Also, most of these characters aren't named, and instead go by their archetype or relation to the protagonist, but for some reason, two characters are named. I couldn't see a reason for this lack of continuity.
My final issue with this book is a bit random, but it still frustrated me. All the speech is in italics, as well as speech marks. As a result I kept reading the speech as if everyone was placing a lot of emphasis on every word even though I knew it was meant to be read normally. I really did hope this would be clever and funny. Instead, it just took well-known flaws of comic books and amplified them, serving only to make them more frustrating.
Sorry, but this one only gets 1.5 stars.
But this is a parody of a superhero story! And the inside cover describes it as "hilarious!" Sadly, it is not hilarious. Not one joke landed for me. The cartoonish characters didn't make me laugh at the ridiculous nature of comic books. It was just annoying.
The book takes stereotypes from comics, and gives very convenient ways out -- superheroes and supervillains can die hundreds of times -- to maintain the narrative. Never mind that one character managed to murder an entire family of heroes/villains with no explanation as to how this "many deaths" rule was circumvented. The Great Aunt supervillain character is simply above all these rules, apparently. Except for when she's not.
Also, most of these characters aren't named, and instead go by their archetype or relation to the protagonist, but for some reason, two characters are named. I couldn't see a reason for this lack of continuity.
My final issue with this book is a bit random, but it still frustrated me. All the speech is in italics, as well as speech marks. As a result I kept reading the speech as if everyone was placing a lot of emphasis on every word even though I knew it was meant to be read normally. I really did hope this would be clever and funny. Instead, it just took well-known flaws of comic books and amplified them, serving only to make them more frustrating.
Sorry, but this one only gets 1.5 stars.
March 6, 2019
Seeds of later work?
This fable, by the author of 'Milkman', manifests much of the author's tendency to be skittish when dealing with death or acts of violence. Her skill is to make the apparent irreverence throw the subject into relief, making the reader both squirm and empathise.
I gave 'Mostly Hero' four stars for its irony regarding superheroism and its clear acceptance that such phenomena exist, at least for these 70-odd pages.
I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good yarn, but
with tongue placed in cheek.
This fable, by the author of 'Milkman', manifests much of the author's tendency to be skittish when dealing with death or acts of violence. Her skill is to make the apparent irreverence throw the subject into relief, making the reader both squirm and empathise.
I gave 'Mostly Hero' four stars for its irony regarding superheroism and its clear acceptance that such phenomena exist, at least for these 70-odd pages.
I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good yarn, but
with tongue placed in cheek.
March 15, 2019
Wow.
Something different and mind bending. Out of the ordinary, extraordinary. This is unlike anything and is mesmerising and dramatic. Also splattered with dark humour. Go with it it will reward you.
Something different and mind bending. Out of the ordinary, extraordinary. This is unlike anything and is mesmerising and dramatic. Also splattered with dark humour. Go with it it will reward you.
November 10, 2018
Bold and strong narrative voice and a whole lot of fun and playful imagination.
March 13, 2024
foi tão rápido que me deixou um pouco confusa, mas ainda assim foi muito engraçado!!!
December 22, 2024
Das Buch ist ein wirklich ungewöhnlich, da es nicht so leicht zugänglich ist, wie man auf den ersten Blick vielleicht denkt. Der Stil ist eigenwillig: Figuren werden oft eher durch ihre Rollen (wie Femme Fatale oder Superheld) als durch Namen beschrieben, und die Erzählung wirkt durch ihren atemlosen, fast übersprudelnden Ton sehr speziell. Das macht die Geschichte aber auch spannend und irgendwie charmant.
Obwohl das Buch durch seinen comichaften Stil und absurde Dialoge auffällt, merkt man schnell, dass darunter viel Tiefgang steckt. Die Figuren wirken trotz der Übertreibung menschlich und nahbar, und es gibt viele kleine Nuancen, die man erst nach und nach entdeckt.
Die Autorin nimmt die typischen Heldenbilder auf die Schippe und zeigt, wie absurd und manchmal gefährlich diese einfachen „Gut gegen Böse“-Geschichten sein können.
Dieses Buch ist kein Buch, das man mal eben nebenbei liest. Es braucht etwas Zeit und Aufmerksamkeit, um die Feinheiten zu schätzen. Wer sich darauf einlässt, wird aber mit einer cleveren und originellen Geschichte belohnt, die noch lange nachwirkt.
Obwohl das Buch durch seinen comichaften Stil und absurde Dialoge auffällt, merkt man schnell, dass darunter viel Tiefgang steckt. Die Figuren wirken trotz der Übertreibung menschlich und nahbar, und es gibt viele kleine Nuancen, die man erst nach und nach entdeckt.
Die Autorin nimmt die typischen Heldenbilder auf die Schippe und zeigt, wie absurd und manchmal gefährlich diese einfachen „Gut gegen Böse“-Geschichten sein können.
Dieses Buch ist kein Buch, das man mal eben nebenbei liest. Es braucht etwas Zeit und Aufmerksamkeit, um die Feinheiten zu schätzen. Wer sich darauf einlässt, wird aber mit einer cleveren und originellen Geschichte belohnt, die noch lange nachwirkt.
Read
February 6, 2023An ebook chosen at random on Libby and read today being a Te Ra Waitangi. Not overly convinced on the story given it was so short but the emotions in it were useful(?), inspiring (?) or even well written about.
March 3, 2025
Bizarre but brilliant. Part fable-fairytale, part 100 years of solitude, part Rodriguez grind house camp, part Sin City. What fun. It really does just drop you in the middle of the river and sweep you along just throwing bits of storyline at you, but in a good way, obviously.
August 21, 2025
It might just be me but man the way it is written was hard for me to get into. Felt like a someone who had drunk at least 20 coffee that were filtered with energy drink than water.
It was good for what it is and still got a nice quote out of it 😄
It was good for what it is and still got a nice quote out of it 😄
June 18, 2024
Entertaining for the first half, gets weirdly introspective in the second half
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