Michael S.A. Graziano, The Love Song of Monkey

The Love Song of Monkey

Michael S.A. Graziano

Leapfrog Press, Nov 2008, $13.95

ISBN: 978098154802

PO Box 2110

Teaticket, MA 02536

www.leapfrogpress.com

Twentyish Jonathan is dying from AIDS. He has given up on life, but heeds his wife Kitty's pleading to try one last desperate gambit. He agrees to see Dr. Kack inventor of the top secret Kwark King cure to see if his life can be saved.

Dr. Kack admits his device is still experimental as the intense pain on human subjects has led them to give up and the tests on animals have all ended in their death. Jonathan is willing to try and becomes the first subject to make it through all the stages of the radical molecular modification that makes his body 'unbreakable' in accordance with Kack. However, he never fully comes awake and acts like he is some sort of living dead. As such Kack and Kitty dump his semi comatose body into the ocean where Jonathan's love for Kitty sustains him while he begins the trek back to human civilianization starting with his soul.

Mindful of Spielberg's A.I., this is a fascinating dreamlike character study that insists the power of love enable people to do extraordinary deeds; as Jonathan did. His goal throughout is to return to his beloved Kitty that sustains him through the medical procedure and his incredible travel to the beyond and back. A whimsical parable that focuses on the strengths and weakens of humanity with the message of "To err is human; to forgive is divine." by Alexander Pope running throughout the deep storyline.

Harriet Klausner