The Great Lover by Michael Cisco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title is both hilariously provocative and slightly embarrassing to read in public. This book finds Cisco presenting his most disorienting outing yet. In some way it seems like it could be his most accessible, resembling both a Frankenstein story and a dark urban fantasy where bizarre worlds and creatures exist in a gritty, recognizable urban tableau. This basic outline won’t help much when you are reading it. Cisco’s writing is at its most art damaged and discombobulated, and inventive and beautiful. Tim Powers remixed by William Burroughs. Weird rituals, alien worlds, and surreal mayhem are what you get. This resembles another beautiful book I have recently read, Grace Krilanovich’s The orange eats creeps, and in a just world this book would get the praise that book so deservedly got. Rhys Hughes intro alone is worth the price of this book.

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