Conglomeros

4.3/5 ( ratings)

"No, it's not the end of the world - it's only spring. A lot can happen in a year to change a man, and has, in my case; and a long winter of isolation and meditation can bring him to certain conclusions about himself and the world in which he is supposed to live." So writes Aaron X., the world-weary narrator of Jesse Browner's extraordinary debut novel, Conglomeros. Part Frankenstein, part Pygmalion, Conglomeros, with its blackly comic world, is destined to be a modern Gothic classic. It all begins when Aaron discovers in the dense forests of Romania a strange and wondrous beast: the Conglomeros, in appearance a hideous monster, but by nature a gently trusting and intelligent soul. The Conglomeros touches a responsive chord in Aaron's jaded heart; unable to give up the one beautiful thing in his life, he rashly smuggles the monster home to New York. Aaron has great plans for the creature: He will care for it, teach it to speak, turn it into the perfect, loyal companion. But all of his well-intentioned plans begin to go unpredictably awry. The Conglomeros soon tires of the idyllic life and falls into the clutches of a clique of ambitious pseudo-mystics in the East Village of Manhattan who hope to exploit it to their own ends. And Aaron, realizing - too late? - that he has somehow corrupted the sublime being, now has but one purpose in life: to untame and set free the thing he loves most. Conglomeros is a brilliantly imagined allegory for our times.