Cows by Matthew Stokoe

Cows
by Matthew Stokoe
1998, Creation Books

A disturbed young man with an abusive mother gets a job in a slaughterhouse and becomes the leader of a herd of escaped cows living in the subway. Starts off absolutely miserable as only the British can do, in the tradition of kitchen sink dramas. Almost unbearably bleak, but the escalating violence diffuses the tension to the point of becoming a cartoon.

I wondered how Stokoe could keep ramping up the gruesomeness and emotional tension, and the answer is he couldn't, with the visceral peak in the middle with slaughterhouse workers committing various sexual atrocities on dying cattle.

Pacing issues aside, this is very well written, much better than the genre of extreme horror deserves. Given that the main character is mentally ill and he finds himself talking to cows, one would expect an exploration of what's real and what's delusion, or is this magic realism. to its credit, the book itself doesn't care, and neither should you.

From Amazon.