I don’t mind weird – and weird this was indeed – but I’ve watched enough Adult Swim at two AM in college to be all full up on weirdness for it’s own sake. And this definitely felt aimless.
The story of two brothers who are secretly robots in a 1990s where robots are common and feared by the general populace, Darryl embraces his nature while his brother Kanga denies it and strives to be as human as possible. Darryl tries to keep a low profile, while Kanga shows off and becomes the star of the basketball team by replicating Magic Johnson’s moves.
I think that the book is weirdly preoccupied with Magic Johnson to make a parallel with the AIDS crisis of the early 1990s and African Americans and subtle racism, but there’s not nearly enough to support a deep reading of this book. It’s good that the main characters are written as robots, but honestly everyone in this book is so divorced from normal human behavior I thought that the twist was going to be that everyone in the town – from the wannabe former basketball star nicknamed Ceiling Fan – to the robotics manufacturer having made the boys to be the best possible basketball players for … reasons?
I read this yesterday and it was so non-sensical that I honestly don’t remember how it ended. Not a fan. Back to the bookstore with this one.
