Cock and Bull

I bought this book after reading a brief description about it on a list of "Weirdest Books You Will Ever Read". I am a big fan of strange and bizarre. But I think I am desensitized to bizarre because I didn't find this one all that strange.Carol is a married woman who quickly married a man she barely knew and slept with after a drunken binge in college. Things quickly fell apart. Dan was an alcoholic, their sex life was minimal, and she was extremely unhappy with her life. Self exploration led her discover a nub growing amidst her lady bits. She learns that she is growing a penis. Bull is a big rugby player who is also unsatisfied with his life. He wants to be a sports journalist more than anything but the publication he currently works for has him going to cabarets and interviewing comedians more than anything else. After another viewing another excruciating performance and briefly having words with the comedian, Bull wakes up the next day to discover a prepubescent vagina has developed in the knee pit of his left leg. Upon going to his physician, Dr Margoulies, the doctor, who is a sex addict, falls in love with the vagina and begins pursuing Bull.From the description I read I should have understood the nature of this book. Both stories in this book run rampant with sex and very graphic descriptions of sexual acts. The first story I read rather quickly because it is a woman's journey of self discovery and the reader almost feels sorry for her. The second story was not as engaging and the characters were not very likeable, especially Alan Margoulies.If you enjoy graphic sex in your novels and strange storylines then this is the book for you. I personally didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I would give this one a 3 out of 5. I may have given it less but I did enjoy the first story, the ending in particular. It was an easy and pretty quick read. Besides misplaced anatomy this wasn't even close to one of the weirdest books I've ever read.

This story is an interesting approach to a touchy subject, and is imaginative, albeit, not quite what I expected from the description. I do think it is one that could make a person think a bit about gender, sexuality, and social assignment to these. I'm glad I bought it...It was recommended by a friend after a discussion on the subject...

Very interesting and alternative but quite disturbing. Some members of my book club loved it, whereas I did not enjoy the sexual violence and the way women are feminity are treated as the weaker sex throughout.

This book was expertly done satire, and it was very special. Bull and Carol were both so ridiculous, and it was the funniest book I've ever had to read for class.

Mr. Self has become an odious presence on the world stage. His writing remains in a downward spiral as style continues to supersede substance in his work. Even if he had an appealing style, it could never rise above the mediocrity of the substance.

These two novellas, written at great speed during a holiday in Morocco, when Self was, as he proclaimed himself 'high on marijuana' have the brio and freshness of stories rolled out with swift, merciless satire.The concept is similar in both stories - exploring the murky waters of human sexual identity, but the pace differs. In 'Cock' a woman trapped in a moribund marriage to a bloke whose idea of sexual seduction is to ask if he can 'climb on board' gradually finds the grisly stub of her clitoris growing and expanding into a fully fledged penis, which takes over her personality giving it freakish impulses.In 'Bull', the metamorphosis is more sudden. Like Gregor Samsa, Bull, a slightly dimwitted, naive rugby player who implausibly writes an arts column for a listings magazine wakes up one morning to find a vagina has sprouted in the crook of his knee. Strange things happen to him as he tries to come to grips with this, and the curious attentions of his doctor Alan Margoulies...This is not Self's best work. It pitches well, but the stories are too frenzied and overwrought to have the subtleties and satirical power of his greatest stories. But there is still plenty of humour, and like all Self's writing, his prose holds up an ugly and uncomfortable mirror to ourselves, and our modes of living.

If only I were a true reviewer of books instead of the Neanderthal pointing in the direction of Will Self grumbling out the words 'he good!' I have only read this book of Mr. Self's at this point, with Great Apes next on my list. It is his prose, his unexpected twist of phrase, and his British English slang ('offie', 'fanny', 'knickers', 'kit') that keeps me enthralled. It almost doesn't matter what the book is about; his sentences are like candy first popped in the mouth; the intensity of flavour makes you run it all round inside your cake-hole from cheek to cheek to maximize the joy. I found myself rereading sentences simply because of the words and images he'd juxtaposed.As for the stories (there are two novelettes to the book), I found myself thinking about the scenes and the emotions long after I'd finished a chapter. One of the other reviewers in Amazon had mentioned that the woman in the first novelette, the one who grows a penis, had no personality, no depth to her. But Self has us grow with her in her development of a sense of pride and substance throughout the evolution of her penis (it ends up being much more than a nub). In the second story, likewise, our protagonist, Bull, is developing a vagina, and we come to feel vulnerable along with him, farce though it be. We almost fall in love with Bull, the muscular rugby player, who sobs uncontrollbaly at having had a 'bad day', feels lonely, and needs to 'talk.' He feels the hormones racing through his body.I find that this book, short and to the point as it is, has altered my neuronal firing patterns in a permanent way. I will often think of the things Self has had his characters feel and experience. I'm looking forward to reading his other books and maybe catch him on one of the British game shows that he's been on.

great

Great story, thought provoking as always. Self at his best when he describes the unthinkable. Checking my knees as we speak.

So ziemlich das wirrste, was ich bisher gelesen habe. Eine Frau, der ein Penis wächst und ein Mann, dem eine Vagina.. Ich möchte gerne das, was der Autor hatte, als er dieses Buch schrieb. Am Ende war ich enttäuscht, dass die Frau und der Mann nicht zueinander gefunden haben.

Boring! Rather disappointed.

funny