The Repossession Mambo

by Eric Garcia

Book Overview

Based on the upcoming film from Universal Pictures, slated for release on April 2, "The Repossession Mambo" is set 20 years in the future and follows the number-one bio-repo man, an agent who hunts... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061802832
• ISBN13: 9780061802836
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Interesting book

I bought this book after i had seen the movie with my boyfriend, I liked the movie and typically books are always better so i knew it was a must read. The book was very interesting, it jumps around more between the main characters life now, and his past then the movie did but all and all it is written well. The main character is the narrator in the story and he plays his part well, i find it to be very descriptive, a tad dark, and filled with irony. If you liked the movie and are a reader then i would definatley check this book out.

Good But Not Breathtaking

The book is a good read for Science-Fiction fans. It's a good first-person narrative, with nice dialect and descriptions. The repetitive subjects of his numerous ex-wifes is eventually tiring. The ending is sub-par and disappointing. This novel will help fill in the time till you find a novel that is gripping and thought provoking.

MAMBO!

Read this book right after watching the movie and I think it's sad that so much from it appears to have been lost in the conversion. Yeah, only so much can be told in 100 minutes, but still.... The book's ending, and most of the story, is quite different from the movie. I personally prefer the ending of the book, but the one given to the movie is more... fitting, I suppose. Somehow, both stories seems to complement each other in a way. "MAMBO", btw, is a reference to the structural style of the narration. It moves back and forth all the time, as if dancing, throwing around bits and pieces of the narrator's life story, sometimes seemingly at random. Seriously, this is NOT a poorly written book, on the contrary, a lot of not so obvious yet important details and several currently relevant subjects that inspire hard thinking were weaved into a well thought out story, but I see how the unconventional narrative style (which I have seen similarly used before in some Hispanic American novels) could be a little odd to some. IMO however it just created a really interesting, refreshing and entertaining read. Also, the book's fragmented structure is a reflection of how an ex-military turned Union Man (nameless in the book) sees everything, including people. To him there are only fragments and he's unable (and maybe a bit reluctant) to put those together and look at the whole. After all, he only came for your liver, who cares about the rest of you? ;)

What a trip!

What if artificial organs could be repossessed after someone falls behind on their payments, leaving the people dead on the floor? This book is the stream of consciousness story of a bio-repo man who rose to the top of the bio-repossession business, only to fall victim to the same business. It outlines his time in the military, his marriages, various repossession jobs, the works! The first half of the book is almost entirely back story, and it's so random. One section our main character is talking about his second ex-wife; the next paragraph jumps back in time to his years in the military. The entire book reads this way; random jumps back and forth in time. Complete stream of consciousness. I'll admit the first half of the book is a little hard to get through because the sheer amount of back story is overwhelming and I kinda wanted something to *happen*. It was easy to put down when the main character was just rambling on about his past, but soon enough, something did happen, and with a little front story to balance the back story, the book picked up the pace. I love the nonchalant way he views cutting people up, taking their liver, spleen, lungs or heart and leaving them dead...with a yellow repossession receipt on the body. I especially like the passage when he describes a time when he repossessed an organ, only to find out that the guy actually did make the payment; a screwup with the paperwork resulted in a false repossession. It's so ordinary to this guy that it's funny. Eric Garcia has this sense of humor, and it's so appropriate for a story like this. The last half of the book kept me turning the pages; I had to know how the hell this situation could possibility wrap up. It's a good ending, too. A very worthwhile read. When the movie comes out, I hope it doesn't lose anything. Garcia's Anonymous Rex series is absolutely wonderful, but when it was turned into a low-budget sci-fi original movie it lost everything. Hopefully this one will stay true to the story...instead of rewriting it for budget constraints. Doesn't matter; even if it gets ruined by hollywood the book is still great.

fabulous science fiction noir

In the future, the implantation of artificial organs (artiforgs) is big business with corporations selling them in malls. Theoretically, a person can be almost totally man-made if you have the money to pay the exorbitant monthly fees. If one becomes delinquent, a Bio-Repro operative will tear into the person to take back the organ to be resold on the market. One such person who does this for a living is the unnamed narrator who fell into the Bio-Repo job due to his lack of skills besides tank driving in the African theater of operation. He proves to be one of the best, but is weary and needs a change; his preference is a transfer to sales, which occurs. However, circumstances force him to need an artificial heart, but to pay for it he returns back to his former repo job. He is to retrieve the kidneys of a delinquent female, but he snaps and ends up on the lam and on his firm's most wanted list with his best friend assigned to the retrieval. This book is going to be a movie and if it retains the ironic excitement of the novel, it should be a great film. The selling of artificial organs with a force to repossess the goods from the delinquent buyers is a satirical spin on several acceptable principles of current society. THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO is a fabulous science fiction noir starring a bone weary antihero who in some ways will remind the audience of Logan (Logan's Run). Readers who relish something different will appreciate this deep extrapolation of twenty-first century America's health industry's hypocritical corpocracy. Harriet Klausner