First published back in March of 1998, Australian author Matthew Stokoe’s debut novel ‘Cows’ delivered a blood-caked slab of social commentary, bludgeoning the reader in the face with the subject of alienation and societal decay.
The novel is infamously known for being uncompromisingly extreme, offering up some of the most disturbing fiction put to paper.
Steven was only twenty-five years old but already had the crushing weight of mere existence on his tired shoulders. The one place he called home, where he’d grown up and spent nigh-on the entirety of his life thus far, was little more than a dirty, grubby, dilapidated flat which he shared with his mother and his crippled pet dog.
Although she’d been the only person in his life, Steven despised his mother with every cell in his body. To him she was the Hagbeast. A vile and loathsome creature. An overweight and hideous being who hated him as much as he hated her.
Nevertheless, Steven felt that he couldn’t leave the flat. He needed the safety the flat offered. Safety in which he could copy the lives he saw on TV. What he saw on screen each day provided a tempting glimpse of a normal life, however, the methods of constructing such a life for himself remained hidden to him.
Although now he finally had a reason to leave the flat and enter the world. He’d secured a job at the city’s slaughterhouse. An inner-city structure of concrete and steel, where cattle were butchered and then minced into food for the hungry masses.
It’s within this abattoir of blood, shit and beef, where Steven will find himself. Where this once lost figure, who craved a life like was portrayed on TV, would finally find a purpose to exist and the strength to begin such a life.
Under the guidance of the slaughterhouse foreman – a man known simply as Cripps – Steven will discover the pure strength in murder. However, Steven is frightened of Cripps and revolted by his pursuits. But in the slaughterhouse, under Cripps’ lecherous eyes and his molesting hands, the force of his will is unmistakable. Despite the feeling of violation killing has brought, it was impossible for Steven not to want what Cripps said to be true.
Steven hungers for change, and not knowing the correct path to take, but unable to pass up a chance at happiness, he allows Cripps to show him the way to true strength. Through murder. A master in his own world. A chance for Steven to finally take hold of a life he’s hungered for since the moment he was born…
Holy fucking shit! Ok, so yeah, I’d heard this was a fucked-up read. However, it really is up there with some of the hardest hitting extreme novels that I’ve devoured. Before I wade into the filth of within this review, I feel it’s best to warn any potential readers of this book’s contents. We’re talking copious amounts of visceral gore and slaughter, extreme depravity – mostly in the arena of bestiality, mutilation, shit-eating (not in a coprophiliac sexual way, but in a torturous force-fed way), foetus death, and….well…talking cows!
I kid you not, this book explores some pretty nasty areas, with scenes that’ll blow your brains out with how gut-churningly vile they are. However, the novel’s not simply there to appal. No, that’s simply there as a catalyst to expose your raw nerve endings to the story and react to the harshness of its message. Akin to the heat in a curry, bringing out all the flavours and spice, if you will.
So, what have we got connecting the dots of these outrageous scenes of grotesque depravity and mind-boggling horror? Well, essentially, we have a story of a lost soul. A young man who’s grown up under the oppressive rule of a dysfunctional mother. A sort of ‘Bad Boy Bubby’ (1993) type of scenario, that’s actually more fucked-up than even Rolf de Heer could have dreamt up.
Steven, our protagonist, has been hidden away from society. Brought up to feel alone, detested and apart from the world. Alienated because of his hateful and spiteful mother – the Hagbeast. And Hagbeast she most certainly is! A vile, overweight, dirty and disgusting creature. Her clothing always caked in dried menstrual blood, left to congeal and rot as a reminder to her son of what he did to her. A woman who serves up the most disgusting meals, for which she thinks she deserves some sort of eternal gratitude. Honestly, I’d draw comparisons to ‘The Greasy Strangler’ (2016) with regards to the fine delicacies of these delightful meals, if not for the fact that there’s really not much to laugh about in what Stokoe lays onto the table for us.
Anyway, they have a dog…called Dog. The poor thing dotes on Steven. It’s loyal and breaks your heart almost every time it enters the room. It’s hindlegs don’t work because the Hagbeast crushed them a while ago. So, it drags itself around the flat, shitting in a designated tray in the kitchen. But it loves Steven with all its canine heart, and Steven loves his dog just as much.
Living above their foul flat we have a half-Indian-half-Jewess girl named Lucy. Yup, we have a love interest if you can believe it?! Although, this ain’t your usual boy meets girl vibe. Lucy is fucked in the head. She’s obsessed with the idea that there’s black lumps of poison in all of us, and she’s desperate to cut the poison out of herself. This shit gets crazy…trust me.
Then we move onto the slaughterhouse and the foreman – Cripps. Oh hell, is this where some nasty shit happens. Ok, so slaughterhouses aren’t exactly family friendly environments bubbling with joy and happiness. However, Cripps – the psychopathic maniac – is in his absolute element every shift he’s there. He’s as depraved as they come. Takes sexual gratification in torture and murder and he’s not afraid to exhibit his perversions one bit, with cock in hand as he watches the cows being slaughtered.
Relatively early on we have a glimpse of just how extreme this novel is gonna get. A scene reminiscent of the infamous water buffalo slaughter scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979), only the scene’s been perverted to obscene proportions. Of course, that’s just a prequel for the absolute gut-churning extremity that’s soon to follow.
Then, of course, we have the talking cows. This is where the novel takes a weird turn, but not so weird it becomes comical, or would fall flat-footed into bizzaro. Yeah, the cows start talking to Steven. Whether it’s actually all in his head, and he’s just plummeting into an abyss of madness, who’s to frigging say! But yeah, they talk, and plot, and form an underground cattle militia, headed up by a Gurnsey cow.
It all sounds pretty fucking weird right?! Well, honestly, the novel works. It’s like a constant bombardment of depravity and filth that you try to steer your way through. Steven is our link to making some sense of it all. A lost soul trying to generate love, like what he sees on TV. Of course, he has no real concept of love, just a deep-rooted desire to replicate it somehow, to join the dots of what life and happiness should involve.
Honestly, you do feel increasingly sorry for Steven. Your heart goes out to him and his desperate plight. He’s just lost and impressionable and wanting to have something that’s felt out of reach all his life.
As you’d imagine, the story escalates into an absolute shitstorm of violence and mayhem before circling the drain of tragedy. That’s not a spoiler; you can sense this nihilistic bleakness from the beginning. However, the fucked-up mania of the underground-cow-herd-militia was not what I was expecting! There’s off-the-wall madness and then there’s this crazy shit.
Does the novel work though? Well, it’s a difficult and almost undigestible read, that’s for sure. The scenes of bestiality and animal cruelty are incredibly challenging reading. Especially the misery that poor Dog puts up with. But behind it all is a story that’s damn compelling. Something that has your emotions strung out, stamped on, and thrust into an ice bath.
It’s powerful and evocative. A novel that punches you in the gut so many times you’ll struggle for air. But you can’t put it down. You need to follow this trainwreck all the way to the point of collision and then beyond into what might be left.
This is a novel that’ll undoubtedly stay in my memory for many years to come. It’s an experience. A voice reaching out to us from an abyss of loneliness, isolation and alienation. A perspective that’s purposefully distorted and corrupted to get under your flesh, so you can absorb the coldness of how fucked-up life can be when your left on the outside. Stokoe’s set out on a mission, and he fucking annihilated all rules in achieving those goals. Fair fucking dos.
The novel runs for a total of 206 pages.
© DLS Reviews
