Moist: A Novel - Hardcover

Haskell Smith, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312303645 ISBN 13: 9780312303648

Publisher: L.A. Weekly Books, 2002

Synopsis

A comic rampage through the polyglot gutters of modern Los Angeles...

When a severed arm decorated with an erotic tattoo appears at an L.A. pathology lab, it's love at first sight. Bob's minimum wage job minding the slabs has never given him agita before, but now he won't rest until he finds the owner of the arm so he can get to the girl who posed for that unforgettable tattoo. But Bob isn't the only one with a stake in finding the arm's owner-the moment he sets off to find his true love, a colorful band of mobsters from Mexico and some of the L.A.P.D.'s finest cross his path in their desperate search for this peculiar piece of evidence.

From Amado, a one-armed murdered addicted to Mexican soap opera, to Martin, a Wharon graduate and cannabis aficionado, to Maura, a masturbation coach with unnatural urges, Bob finds himself entangled in a hilarious stew of murder, sex and mobster-style politics.

A first novel that is as sharp and biting as a salt-rimmed margarita,Faster, with a head-swiveling plot you'll love to untangle, Moist is whip-smart, stylish reading.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Haskell Smith is a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles. This is his first novel.

Reviews

Scattered body parts, a masturbation coach, the Los Angeles Mexican mafia and the work of Frida Kahlo are spun into a frenetic froth in this gritty, entertaining black comedy. Bob, a slacker working at United Pathology in L.A., is roused from Tetris-induced inertia by the arrival on his desk of a severed arm bearing the distinctive tattoo of a naked woman. Ruthless Mexican mobster Esteban has also learned of the missing limb; he knows it belongs to his associate Amado and will tie him to the recent murder of a mob informant. As Bob ferries the arm to a forensic facility, he is violently waylaid by Esteban and his henchmen. Instead of panicking, Bob-weary of his dull life and recently separated from his sex therapist girlfriend Maura-finds himself strangely enticed by "the glamorous aspect of the criminal life." He becomes "Roberto" and strikes a deal with Esteban to fool authorities by delivering a different limb to the police in exchange for one night with Felicia, the seductive woman supposedly pictured in Amado's tattoo. But the replacement arm ends up being chopped from one of Maura's clients, linking everyone together. Meanwhile, Maura finds unexpected romance with a detective and Bob's liaison with Felicia turns into true love. Pace and plotting are all in this Pulp Fiction-esque tale, and Smith amply proves he knows how to get the adrenaline pumping. Fans of hiply skewed jackhammer action will appreciate this debut.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This vastly entertaining debut novel, with a colorful cast of game-playing slackers and stressed-out mobsters, reads like an homage to Elmore Leonard. Bob spends most of his work time at United Pathology surfing the Internet until the day he is required to process a severed arm. It sports a lascivious tattoo featuring a woman so beautiful that Bob is entirely smitten. The arm belongs to Amado, an enforcer for the L.A. Mexican Mafia who had a serious accident at the scene of a murder. And he most certainly does not want his fingerprints to connect him to the crime. Bob is kidnapped en route to delivering the arm to an organ center, and readily agrees to deliver someone else's arm if he can spend the night with the model for Amado's tattoo. Part of the antic fun here is the way Smith revels in overthrowing stereotypes: a street detective with a jones for fine wine; a mobster who ends up writing scripts for telenovelas; and a Gen-Xer who becomes a major player in the Mexican Mob. A wildly imaginative comic novel. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Anne McCarty Braden, a white Southerner, became famous in May 1954 for helping an African American couple buy a home in an all-white suburban neighborhood. She and her husband, Carl, believed that all people had a right to live wherever they wanted, regardless of the color of their skin, but others in the neighborhood violently disagreed. The African American couple had to endure cross burnings, rocks through their windows, and, finally, dynamite that blew apart half of their house. Anne and her husband, meanwhile, were labeled Communists and charged with sedition; nevertheless, their act of courage represented a lifelong dedication to social justice activism. (Anne was later praised in Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail.") Fosl (Women for All Seasons) worked with Anne Braden on this "oral history-biography" for more than a decade, although Braden confesses in a 2002 interview that "this book would have been very different if we'd written it together"; nevertheless, Fosl conveys the bravery and uncompromising convictions that made Anne Braden an important figure in the 20th-century labor and Civil Rights movements. Suitable for academic libraries and large public libraries.
Amy Strong, South Portland, ME
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: L.A. Weekly Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312303645
• ISBN 13: 9780312303648
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320