Cows (Little House on the Bowery)

Do you like cows? Do you have even a tinge of faith in the goodness of man? If so, skip this relentlessly violent survey of some taboos you've heard of, and hopefully, a few new ones that would never occur to you. The novel follows 25-year-old Steven, who dwells in a faceless American city with his sadistic mother ("the Hagbeast"), his only friend a crippled dog named Dog. His life takes a dramatic turn when he takes a slaughterhouse job and is quickly initiated into the factory's bloody and darkly sexual brotherhood. Then he meets upstairs neighbor Lucy, who is obsessed with vivisection, and starts to believe there may be a ray of light in his otherwise nightmarish life, but what follows is a phantasmagoria of extreme violence, death, sex, bestiality, self-surgery, torture, and a really, really, really bad mother-son relationship, all of which takes what the marquis de Sade did and pushes it down the road a little farther. Stokoe is an able craftsman, which makes the content all the more horrifying as he blasts through boundaries and finds increasingly twisted ways of making readers squirm. Pag : 160 "[A] phantasmagoria of extreme violence, death, sex, bestiality, self-surgery, torture, and a really, really, really bad mother-son relationship, all of which takes what the marquis de Sade did and pushes it down the road a little farther. Stokoe is an able craftsman, which makes the content all the more horrifying as he blasts through boundaries and finds increasingly twisted ways of making readers squirm."
--Publishers Weekly

"Stokoe's vision of Hell is a carnivore's nightmare. A powerful and all too possibly prophetic work."
--Kathy Acker

"Beautifully written and deeply gripping, this is a great read. I'm already looking forward to the next one from Matthew Stokoe."
--Michael Connelly, author of Nine Dragons, on Empty Mile

Mother's corpse in bits, dead dog on the roof, girlfriend in a coma, baby nailed to the wall, and a hundred tons of homicidal beef stampeding through the subway system. And Steven thought the slaughterhouse was bad . . .

Matthew Stokoe was born in England and presently divides his time between Sydney and northern California. He is the author of the groundbreaking novels High Life and Empty Mile, and he is internationally regarded as one of the most daring and innovative writers working today.

*a Selection Of Dennis Cooper's Little House On The Bowery Series. [a] Phantasmagoria Of Extreme Violence, Death, Sex, Bestiality, Self-surgery, Torture, And A Really, Really, Really Bad Mother-son Relationship, All Of Which Takes What The Marquis De Sade Did And Pushes It Down The Road A Little Farther. Stokoe Is An Able Craftsman, Which Makes The Content All The More Horrifying As He Blasts Through Boundaries And Finds Increasingly Twisted Ways Of Making Readers Squirm.--publishers Weekly If You Enjoy The Sensation Of Your Jaw Dropping To The Floor In A Combination Of Stupefaction, Hilarity, And Shock, Cows Is Your Book. Matthew Stokoe Has Written A Novel Like No Other I've Ever Read -- Appalling, Funny, And Possessed Of A Sense Of Outr Violence That Make Joris-karl Huysmans Read Like Louisa May Alcott.--scott Phillips, Author Of The Ice Harvest. One Of The Most Outrageous, Original, And Insightful Books Ever Written On The Subject Of Alienation And Societal Decay, Cows Is A Violent, Blood-soaked Nightmare--a Tale Of Love, Self-empowerment, And Talking Cows That Will Haunt You Long After The Last Page Is Turned. Twenty-five-year-old Steven faces a bleak life with a sadistic mother and a job at a slaughterhouse where he is confronted with extreme violence and death.