A Melon for Ecstasy (Prion Humour Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Love Hurts!
Review: Even hardcore readers will scratch their heads in wonderment at the sheer audacity of "A Melon for Ecstasy." It is like nothing else floating around out there. Sure, there are plenty of offbeat black comedy books waiting to be found, but this book takes the cake. Written in the 1970's by two Brits, John Fortune and John Wells, "A Melon for Ecstasy" deals with a very special man and his love for the wilderness. While many of us love the countryside and all of its intimate charms, it is a safe bet to say that none of us take our affinity for nature as far as Humphrey Mackevoy, the main character of the book.

You see, dear old Humphrey has a different outlook on nature than most people. Humphrey loves trees, literally. It is the type of love that involves a drill and splinters in a very private area of the human anatomy. Climbing trees is not enough for good old Hump; he lives up to his name by making nightly excursions into the neighborhood or a nearby forest and getting to know oaks, maples, elms, and assorted other classifications of the old wood on a first name basis. Of course, whenever Humphrey rises to the occasion, he must watch carefully for his neighbors. One would not want to be caught with one's pants down when the local constabulary strolls by. Humphrey's biggest problem is not his proclivity for tree lovin'; it is the fact that the people in town are noticing his little hobby because Humphrey leaves evidence of his amorous adventures.

Fortune and Wells tell the story of Humphrey entirely through newspaper clippings, letters, and other sorts of two-way communications. This clinical detachment serves to bring out a lot of the humor in the situation. We not only see Humphrey's thoughts through his diary entries, but also the reaction of neighbors and townspeople to the rapidly increasing number of tree holes. Humphrey's activities sets off a whole chain of events, bringing in the local bird watching society, a conflict between two powerful members of the community, an oversexed teenager, and Humphrey's mother (one of the oddest birds to appear in the literary canon).

Initially, the police are dumbfounded over these seemingly random appearing holes. One inspector posits the theory that it must be an orangutan drilling the holes. The local bird watching society believes a rare woodpecker is responsible (and in a way, it is). When the town clerk begins to spray the local trees to keep the woodpecker away, he touches off a war with the entire town, especially with Alderman Strangeways. In a series of escalating confrontations, Humphrey's main squeeze is chopped down and the local beverage ends up with a rather unwelcome embellishment. Humphrey ends up going on a rampage and is caught in a compromising position. His subsequent arrest, trial, and conviction round out the book. The book does have a happy ending, although it is as strange as the rest of the story.

It is a tad difficult to read any type of deep meaning into "A Melon for Ecstasy." At times, the book is so dark as to defy description. When Humphrey spends pages of his diary discussing every type of tree and his desires for them, J.G. Ballard's "Crash" swiftly comes to mind. If "Crash" attempted to reveal a future psychology, one where men and machine became united, "A Melon for Ecstasy" outlines a primitive psychology, where man and nature seek union. Then again, maybe that is just reading too much into the whole thing. It is classified as humor and there are certainly enough chuckles in the book to merit that moniker.

"A Melon for Ecstasy" is funny, although compared to heavyweight British humorists like Jerome K. Jerome, Fortune and Wells cannot compare. Rose Hopkins, the teenager with nothing but indecent thoughts on her mind, is always worth a chortle, as is the running battle between Smart and Strangeways. Especially noteworthy is the prison chaplain who attempts to reach his less educated flock by reworking the gospel narratives into a western novel (involving Sheriff Jesus and his posse) and a science fiction novel (an even more outlandish tale beginning with "Space Hostess Mary").

You need to be in the right mood for this slim book. Even if you do not pick up much of the humor, the book is still worth reading because it is so darn weird. Be sure and pass it along to friends; not only will they think the book is strange; they will look at you in a different light, and that can only be to the good.

Rating:
Summary: Botanical Erotica - And Hilarious to Boot!
Review: I have been waiting for over a decade to see this strange and hilarious book back in print. The bizarre situation will not be for everyone but for those who appreciate on-target satire and off-beat subject matter, this is a real find. The two authors have come up with a novel that satirizes many things but chiefly the psychological thriller and small town mores.

The plot centers on Humphrey MacKevoy, an Englishman who has uncontrolable sexual lust for trees -really! The townpeople of Mundham begin to notice strange holes being drilled into the trunks of young saplings and begin speculating what can be causing them (the chief theory is a rare species of woodpecker which brings the birders out in force when the town council wants to use bird-repellent to get rid of it).

One of the delights of the book is the method used by the authors to tell the story. There are newpaper articles from the local town paper, minutes from the bird society , pages of the police log, psychiatrist's notes and excerpts from diaries. The chief informer is Humphrey himself , who records his nightly raids on the unsuspecting trees in graphic and explicit detail (a great spoof on the porngraphic novel).

The whole tale would be shocking and tasteless if it were not in the hands of these two clever writers. The bumbling efforts of the locals to discover what is going on, contrasted with the mind-boggling descriptions of Humphrey's conquests, make for a truely funny ride.

You'll be reading passages out loud to whomever is nearby and, when finished, you'll start making a list of the friends who should get copies.