Kiss Me, Judas: A Novel

So we have one lady complaining that Baer doesn't use quotation marks and it made it difficult to read and one man complaining about the names of things. I'm going to try and write a better review than either of those. This story is the first in a trilogy [with Penny Dreadful and Hell's Half Acre rounding out the three] where the protagonist Phineas Poe has his kidney stolen by Jude after he is released from a mental institute after a nervous breakdown in Internal Affairs. What follows is the muddled trek of one man in a drugged stupor that's just trying to get his kidney back and the girl. Baer's strength resides in his awesome ability to describe things. For instance when Phineas tries to remember what Jude he says, "Red dress, black hair, body like a knife..." showing that she has a sleek, strong, and dangerous body. He also keeps things short to mimick Phineas's own short thought patterns. He thinks like he's drugged and just wants to see beyond that and that's how you read it. He tries to kill people, but can't and you know he has a heart somewhere in his frail body. Even Jude can't help herself. Despite all of the violence and drugs surrounding him, Phineas makes ends of things and finds a way to make things work and that's what matters in the end. He comes to terms with his fragmented thoughts, his wife's death, Jude's theft, and all the other people involved. As for the title being Kiss Me, Judas it works, because in the end that's all Phineas wants.

"Kiss Me, Judas" is summed up nicely by the author himself when he calls it a "scary love story." Many other authors would have used the basic premise of the storyline - the harvesting of one's kidney while the donor is alive and unwilling - to delve into the underbelly of today's black market, but Chris Baer uses it as a dark and gritty backdrop to the core theme he wants us to recognize, and that is of modern-day love and loss. Baer writes the way everyone aspires to - brutally honest and open. When everyone else has the secrets of their hearts sealed in a box and guarded with sentries, Chris has his unlocked and painted on every page as if writing in his own journal. The things that we lack the courage to even whisper to ourselves are exposed and illuminated for all the world to see and reading it puts Baer's very soul in the limelight. Each turn of the page slashes another razorblade across his wrist and we ache with every darkly heartfelt comment that Phineas makes. The aching of the protagonist is compelling and the constant questioning of what is real or imagined, true love or false hope, guilt or innocence, puts a ray of light into our own minds, into the questions that we subconsciously ask ourselves but we don't have the fortitude to actually ponder honestly. Baer shows us how love can bring you to the brink of self-destruction, and how it can also pull you out of the depths. These pages are bruising to the soul, but ultimately cathartic. This is a novel that we need to read, because love is the only feeling that can make anyone fall, but it can keep us from falling, too.

So it's noir written in the late 90s. So it's written like a dream (a nightmare, actually), no quotations marks, paragraphs that attempt no meaning, etc. So it's Baer; who the hell is he?!?!?! One of the most promising authors today, that's for sure. I'm from Argentina, so you can imagine than when I bought this book in Italy (I bought the English version), I didn't know who this guy was or anything. Let me tell you this is not an easy read, but it is an AMAZING journey to the depths of a psychotic mind (Phineas, that is). I found the non quotation marks added to the "I'm not going to make things easier for the reader" possition Baer took. I'm very delighted with the novel, which is not only an hypnotic tale but a love story at it's best (so you can imagine it's full of peverse, cynical thoughts and actions). READ IT.

I can't really find the words to describe this book, something that has never happened to me before. This book takes you into a dark underworld that you can't possibly imagine. It challenges what you have already been told and dares you to think or question anything. I would definatly recommend this to anyone who wants to be dragged into a strange world of sex, drugs and love.

One shouldn't have to wait so long to read books as good as this. Baer's prose is as exruciatingly clean as the snow falling over Denver, falling onto cars, falling past the streetlights -- dark, sweet shimmering sentences, like candy that could kill you. When is this guy's next book coming out? Who is this guy? Great!