Down on his luck and still pining for his ex-wife, South Carolina taxidermist Romie Futch spends his evenings drunkenly surfing the Internet before passing out on his couch. In a last-ditch attempt to pay his mortgage, he replies to an ad and becomes a research subject in an experiment conducted by the Center for Cybernetic Neuroscience in Atlanta, Georgia. After "scientists" download hifalutin humanities disciplines into their brains, Romie and his fellow guinea pigs start debating the works of Foucault and hashing out the intricacies of postmodern subjectivity. The enhanced taxidermist, who once aspired to be an artist, returns to his hometown ready to revolutionize his work and revive his failed marriage. As Romie tracks down specimens for his elaborate animatronic taxidermy dioramas, he develops an Ahab-caliber obsession with bagging "Hogzilla," a thousand-pound feral hog that has been terrorizing Hampton County. Cruising hog-hunting websites, he learns that this lab-spawned monster possesses peculiar traits. Pulled into an absurd and murky underworld of biotech operatives, FDA agents, and environmental activists, Romie becomes entangled in the enigma of Hogzilla's origins.
Exploring the interplay between nature and culture, biology and technology, reality and art, The New and Improved Romie Futch probes the mysteries of memory and consciousness, offering a darkly comic yet heartfelt take on the contemporary human predicament.
Industry Reviews
The New and Improved Romie Futch not only marks the arrival of one of the funniest, smartest, and most unnerving novels you ll read this year, but also a vision for Southern literature that could only have sprung from Julia Elliott s wild, devastating, and wholly original imagination. Consider me a fan for life. --Laura van den Berg, author of FIND ME: A Novel" The New and Improved Romie Futch romps wildly through a land of feral mutants and monsters of a more civilized kind. But at the story s core is a heartsick man who believes he can be better. In this exceptionally imaginative and funny novel, high culture collides with low, the future torments but also soothes, and the grotesque beauty of our humanity shines through it all. --Diane Cook, author of MAN V. NATURE" In her debut novel, South Carolina author Julia Elliott takes us on a freewheeling, Pynchonian adventure through the American South. Recently divorced and mortgaged to the hilt, taxidermistRomieFutchis a real mess. When a shadowy research institute offers to expand his mental capacity--and pay him a stipend for the privilege--Romieskims the paperwork and signs his name. But will cerebral downloads of art and literature help him win back his beloved Helen? CanRomierevive his taxidermy career by slaying the mythical mutant razorback nicknamed Hogzilla? And what about the side effects from all those downloads? With vibrant prose, quirky characters, and pointed commentaries on contemporary American life, Julia Elliott answers all those questions, and many more. ReadRomieFutch, and you, too, will find yourself newly improved." I guarantee you ll read this exceptional debut novel in one sitting The New and Improved Romie Futch announces Elliott as an undeniably original voice . Author Julia Elliott is awesome InThe New and Improved Romie Futch, debut novelist Julia Elliott punches above her weight class Romie Futch The novel s neatest trick is aligning Romie s distress over his own future, which once seemed so boundless, with broader anxieties about what environmental and technological monstrosities the 21st century may bring The New and Improved Romie Futch the grotesque beauty of our humanity shines through it all I guarantee you'll read this exceptional debut novel in one sitting The novel's neatest trick is aligning Romie's distress over his own future, which once seemed so boundless, with broader anxieties about what environmental and technological monstrosities the 21st century may bring In The New and Improved Romie Futch, debut novelist Julia Elliott punches above her weight class The New and Improved Romie Futch announces Elliott as an undeniably original voice . InThe New and Improved Romie Futch, debut novelist Julia Elliott punches above her weight class
