I’m In Your Head, Reading Your Thoughts…

Once we put the gnome back on the lawn and achieved neighbourhood nuclear superiority, there were only two things left to do:

Tell the world, and declare independence.

And tell Mom.

– Nick Mamatas, “Under My Roof”, page 19.

Herbert Weinberg isn’t really a genius. Everyone thinks he is, but that’s just because they don’t know he can read minds. There’s nothing hard about physics if you can consult a professor a hundred miles away on the subject. Later on, when people have discovered Herbert’s amazing ability, they ask him if Herbert knew that his father had gone off his ticker at the start. But the truth is that Daniel Weinberg (or “King Daniel the First” as he calls himself today”) wasn’t crazy when he decided to make a garden-variety nuclear bomb and found a nation of his own in their suburban home. He was just sick and tired of life in America; of the forty wars the US is waging for no apparent reason; of not being able to get a real job, and so on, and so on… It would all be much better if he didn’t have to live there any longer.

That’s why he decided to make a nuclear bomb, place it inside a lawn-gnow,  and then proceed to take on the most powerful nation on Earth. Herbert was previously only a normal kid who could read minds. Now he’s just a normal kid who can read minds, ane he just happens to also be the First Prince of Weinbergia.

This is a Young Adult novel, and it’s a damned good one. Now, I don’t usually read this much YA as I’ve done lately (two YA’s in a row! Err… YAy me?), but I’ve been wanting to read something by Nick Mamatas - who comes with highly recommended from everyone - for a long time now, and short and simple seemed like a good deal to me. “Under My Roof” is only a 144 pages long, so it’s definitely short. But is it simple?

I dare say not!

Well, it actually is simple in terms of the amount of time you’re likely to spend on it. I devoured it raw, but happily found its pages smacking with an eloquent aftertaste that I still can conjure whenever I think about this novel. And that, to me, is what makes this book so bloody great. A younger person could pick it up and love it purely for its aesthetics; it’s well paced, endlessly witty and it’s practically brimming with originality and a wonderful sense of “what if?” What if the citizens of the United States really started to protest by their homes independent states? I can certainly tell you that someone in DC would actually listen to common sense if they got it chucked so keenly at their eardrums.

I love “Under My Roof” for those qualities, too. I might also add that the main character and the two parents are all very well done. It kinda drops its focus for a small time towards the end, but that’s remedied with the glazing on the cake: Mamatas’ political message. He isn’t heavy handed with it, but I sincerely hope that young (and old) people of America read this book. Maybe they’ll get a better perspective on things. And maybe - just maybe - this is will be a kind of book that might change our world to something better.

That’d be nice.

8.0 /10