Elephant Gnosis, by David Kettle, is a unique adventure in suspending disbelief. One look at the cover should tell you that. After all, it isn't every day that one comes across a pink elephant with a red jewel embedded in its forehead .To add confusion to the mix, the entire picture strongly resembles an era when LSD was the feel-good enhancer of choice.
Nevertheless, Kettle draws his readers into the land of Buffy Strangelove, a man who has created a self help phenomenon, Elephant Gnosis. The concept is that by drawing on the elephantine brain, one can harness unlimited power. Have you ever known this several ton creature to forget anything?
Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the entire novel is the self-absorbed as well as disjointed ramblings of Strangelove as he attempts to handle power beyond even his own limited scope. This is best described as "the anti-novel, Meta-Self Help Technique That Dare Speak Its name, dictated by the ghosts of the 3 Stooges to Stanley Kubrick via his preferred medium Peter Sellers".
Personally, I was reminded of the writer Terry Prachett when I was reading Elephant Gnosis. Both are prime examples of allegory, that some of us will always see the world in a different light than the rest of us.
Copies of Elephant Gnosis can be purchased at kerosenebomb.com
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
Nancy,
Please include a link to Amazon with your posts.
Thanks very much,
Eric B.
2 - Eric Olsen
alas, it's not in there, not Nancy's fault
3 - Eric Berlin
Okay -- thanks, Eric
4 - DrPat
How about a link to a Terry Pratchett novel, then? I know his stuff is available on Amazon...
5 - NancyGail
Well, that's a first. I included the ASIN for Elephant Gnosis when I worte the post to begin with. Here-0971007713
6 - Eric Olsen
Is that from the American Amazon, Nancy? I don't find it there at all.
7 - DrPat
Maybe it's because Elephant Gnosis, like "Chaucer, Rabelais, Balzac" is a dirty book... [grin]
I've been lead astray before this by entering the ISBN number from the copyright page or the inside cover of a book.
Usually, Amazon will post a "no image found" when that happens. But Amazon flat does not find any book titled Elephant Gnosis.
8 - NancyGail
That may be it comes from an idependent bookseller. I got a note from the contact asking that I say people can get their book from Kerosene Bomb. So, deleted Gnosis ASIN and left up Prachett ASIN. Added indie web addy.
9 - Eric Olsen
btw, nice review Nancy, thanks!
10 - DrPat
What's really weird is when you clip the ASIN off the Amazon page, paste it in the correct field, and it is ignored.
Had that happen with two different Lott books I tried to add to my post on gun control.
11 - NancyGail
Have found that I need to write up the review in my email program first, then copy and paste to Em Tee. Typing it straight in brings up 'page not available'.