My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist
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My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist is a book written by Mark Leyner, who has often been called the author for the MTV generation. The book was first published by Vintage Contemporaries in 1993. Some portions of this book were originally published in magazines and anthologies, such as Fiction International, Rolling Stock, Hallwalls Anthology, Esquire or Harper's Magazine.
The book is composed of 17 chapters loosely related to each other; and what is more, the chapters consist of distinct short passages filled with vivid images that resemble music clips. There is no storyline, as the unnamed narrator shifts from one idea to another. The narrative styles in the book vary significantly as well. The text encompasses jargons, disregards grammar and punctuation; sometimes it seems more like poetry than prose. Leyner incorporates elements of science fiction, cyberpunk, tabloid journalism, and advertising slogans; and as the book is also filled with TV and pop-culture references (e.g. to kung-fu films) and literary allusions it may be difficult to read without the wide-ranging knowledge of current affairs. Furthermore, Leyner often resorts to irony and humor as a means of interplay with traditional realism.
In the queer world of My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist everything is possible. Your parent could be in the basement centrifuging mouse spleen hybridomais; you can order gallium arsenide sushi at a diner; or be abusing growth hormones and steroids. Your wife can suffer from a psychiatric condition and only eating tremendous amounts of Italian food can heal her, and just as well, an ant who's about to be squashed by a shiny lama cowboy boot may say directly into camera: "i want to live" and traumatize the whole America.
The author plays with symbols and good taste. The narration shifts quickly, as if prepared for the short attention span of the new generation of readers who grew up in the world of the new media. Some characters and ideas emerge suddenly and disappear without any explanation. There are many thoughts and ideas mixed up, and left hanging; in Leyner's postmodern fiction not everything needs to make sense.
David Foster Wallace uses this novel as an example of how empty self-referential and post-modern literature can be in his essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", from his book "A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again".
