Less Than Hero, by S. G. Browne

So, after finishing Worth Dying For by Lee Child on September 13, I started Less Than Hero by S. G. Browne.  I finished this one on September 27.  A few years back, The Husband and I met S. G. Browne at a book reading held by SF in SF - Science Fiction in San Francisco.  Browne's book, Lucky Bastard, had recently been published and he was there to talk about it.  Lucky Bastard, a sci-fi cop novel set in San Francisco, was a good read - strange but good.  It was fun to read a book set in the city where I lived for almost 20 years - I could really picture the places, geography, and settings Brown wrote about.

The Husband got Less Than Hero from the library and passed it to me to read when he finished.  Reading the synopsis on the back of the book, I was a little skeptical as to whether I would like this one.  But, it was quite entertaining and I enjoyed it.  This is the story of a group of men living in New York who make a living being "guinea pigs" for drug trials.  Each of the guys has an interesting life outside of their guinea pigging.  Lloyd panhandles with a variety of entertaining signs one of which invited people to hurl insults at him for money - will take verbal abuse for money.

"When I first started using this sign a couple of years ago, I received the standard insults and derogatory comments meant for me and my wasted life.  For what I represented.  For what I'd become.

A social tumor.

A rash on the ass of civilization.

An oozing pus bag of failure.

     More often than not, the insults weren't accompanied by a donation but by malicious laughter.  Sometimes people spit on me, which isn't technically verbal abuse, but when you're a panhandler, you can't expect everyone to be on the same page. 

   But after a while, once people saw me around Central Park with my sign on a regular basis, they started to feel comfortable with me, to understand the freedom I was offering, and they started to open up.  Now when most people approach me, rather than showering me with personal attacks and derogatory invectives about my existence, they vent their frustrations about anything that's troubling them.  The problems that they're unable to deal with.

     Jobs.  Relationships.  Family.

     'I hate you, Mom.' A young woman wearing a Columbia University sweatshirt tosses a dollar into my hat. 'You've ruined my life.'

     ...'Go fuck yourself, Kaufman.' A guy in a suit donates a dollar to my cause.  'I don't need this job or your bullshit TPS reports."  [Gotta love a little Office Space reference thrown in there] 

Lloyd lives with Sophie who moonlights as a Fairy in Central Park.  Sophie has a cat named Vegan who "only eats cat food made with organic animal products.  He also doesn't consume any dairy products, even if they're made with non-GMO ingredients or come from cows that aren't factory-farmed or injected with HGH.  According to Sophie, this is a decision Vegan came to on his own."

Lloyd and his merry band of guinea pigs get together frequently to hang out, talk about new trials, and catch up.  One day, Lloyd brings up something strange that he's noticed about himself.  At first the others don't believe him.  But soon they, too, admit that they have strange things about themselves too.  They come to consider these "strange things" super powers of sorts and decide to put them to good use - defending and helping those in need.  And, of course every super hero needs a nemesis - this book has those too.

This book is super strange, but has an interesting overarching theme - people test all kinds of drugs for drug companies.  Drugs can have all kinds of side effects.  Could some of those side effects become "powers" of sort that are transferrable to or upon others?  Brown writes:

"A recent study found that seven in ten Americans are on at least one prescription drug and more than half take two or more - with antibiotics, antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, opioids, high blood pressure medications, and vaccines making up the bulk of the prescriptions.  According to that same study, a third of all prescription drugs are toxic to humans, with the side effects of the medications often worse than the affliction being medicated.

Your average person will take their doctor-prescribed prescriptions without giving much thought to what long-term effects those drugs might have on them.  At least we guinea pigs understand what we're getting into, even if it's not a smart career move.  But for people who have normal jobs, taking a drug to cure one problem can lead to additional side efects that require more drugs until you wind up in a never-ending pharmaceutical loop, medicating your medications.

...So it seems reasonable that it's only a matter of time before evolution makes a leap forward and humans start being born with a dependency on pharmaceutical drugs.  Or exhibiting permanent side effects."

 Makes you think, doesn't it.

If you could have a super power of your choosing - not a prescription drug induced one - what would it be?  Mine would be the power of flight.