Cameron is coasting through life, apathetic about school, family, and his job. Then he is given the bad news that he has the human form on mad cow disease and is going to die. As he lies in his hospital bed waiting for the inevitable, he receives a very strange visitor in the form of Dulcie, a punk angel/possible hallucination. She tells him that he needs to go in search of a cure and possibly save the world while he is at it. Cameron recruits his hospital roommate, Gonzo, a hypochondriac dwarf, and they set off on the trip of a lifetime.
I read this for my Not-So-Young Adult book group and wasn't crazy about it. It was obvious early on that the whole adventure is just a dream, so it seemed rather pointless to me. (I think that's supposed to be a spoiler, but seriously, if you cannot tell what's going on then you just aren't paying attention AT ALL.) It was also really very long, and I grew impatient with the flitting from one place to another in a mostly random fashion.
But once we talked about it at book group, I felt a little better about it. I considered how much I liked some of the characters, especially Balder the yard gnome, and the book does actually have a point that I can't argue with (although "live life to the fullest" is a little overdone). I'm not a big fan of the surreal and trippy, but it was funny and entertaining even if it could have been a little shorter.
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