Kill the Mall
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
"Pasha Malla writes like a reincarnated Kafka." —Ian Williams, winner of the Giller Prize for Reproduction
Douglas Adams meets David Lynch in this ingenious, witty fable about one of North America's most surreal inventions—the local mall.
After writing a letter in praise of malls, our eccentric narrator is offered a residency at a shabby suburban shopping centre. His mission: to occupy the mall for several weeks, splitting his time between "making work" and "engaging the public," all while chronicling his adventures in weekly progress reports.
Before long, a series of strange after-hour events rattles our hero, and he sets forth on a nightly quest to untangle the mysterious forces at play in the mall's unmapped recesses. Things quickly get hairy, and our narrator's optimism about his mall residency descends into doubt, and then into a full-blown phantasmagoria of horror and (possibly) murder. With the aid of a weird and wonderful cast of mall-dwelling misfits--including a pony named Gary--our narrator is forced to conclude that his new residence may not be the temple of consumer bliss he initially imagined, but something far more sinister. And who, or what, is benefitting from its existence?
Much like the shopping centres it praises and parodies, Pasha Malla’s wildly adventurous novel follows its own internal logic, channeling its narrator’s unshakeable innocence to explore the darker edges of human (and other) nature.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In pop culture, shopping malls seem to glimmer with neon-tinted ’80s nostalgia. But what happens when that warm glow is replaced by a force that’s far more sinister—and ridiculous? When our unnamed narrator somehow lands a “residency” in a mall, he’s tasked with enigmatic responsibilities like “engaging the public” and “making work.” While it initially seems like an easy dream job, things immediately get very weird. A single hair starts growing out of his tongue. A sentient ponytail starts working at the fashion boutique. Why does everything in this place revolve around hair? Soon, the idiosyncrasies go from fun to terrifying, leading him to suspect that dark and perhaps even murderous forces are at work. With its wacky characters and strange happenings, Pasha Malla’s satirical mind trip of a novel made us laugh out loud, and the wild climax really ties the whole strange caper together. Dizzying, hilarious, and slightly unnerving, Kill the Mall brings the vibe of Twin Peaks to the world of mall rats.