{"id":1350,"date":"2014-06-25T13:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vg-ford.com\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2014-06-25T13:00:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T17:00:44","slug":"book-review-the-street-by-paul-e-cooley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/?p=1350","title":{"rendered":"(book review) The Street, by Paul E. Cooley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Street by Paul E. Cooley (art by Scott Pond)<\/p><\/div>\n

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I promised some book reviews, so here’s the first! \u00a0This is an amazing book. \u00a0It is a horrifying, twisted, sick, wonderful book. \u00a0I really really really enjoyed this.<\/p>\n

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The Street, by Paul E. Cooley, (available here with his other amazing books<\/a>) explores what happens to Sesame Street, the Muppet Show and Jim Henson’s other beloved creatures when the neocons take over and cancel PBS. \u00a0A puppet’s gotta make a living, after all, and when everything’s taken away from you, what do you do?<\/p>\n

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Whatever you have to.<\/p>\n

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In Cooley’s dark world, our narrator\/guide is none other than Oscar the Grouch, who’s become the Nero Wolfe of The Street, as it’s now known. \u00a0Paid in Tuaca, Oscar leads us through the nightmare that is his world, as rival gangs divide up their turf and sell dough (cookie), seed and the services of puppet whores to whoever can afford to pay for them. \u00a0The Street that used to be clean and happy is now a drug-filled hellhole of broken dreams and trash.<\/p>\n

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Oscar isn’t a saint either, but he’s the closest thing the Muppets have to a good guy. \u00a0In this rough world, if you need to find a puppet, or stop a killer, you go to the guy in the can. \u00a0If he can’t help you, well, you’re screwed.<\/p>\n

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I loved this book. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0I love the Muppets and always have – I grew up watching Sesame Street, Labyrinth, and the Muppet Show. \u00a0This takes those characters to a dark place, and they survive, because that’s what puppets do. \u00a0They survive. \u00a0You will never look at the Muppets the same again, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. \u00a0I can’t wait to see what Paul does next (I’m kind of hoping for a Neighborhood of Make-Believe crossover soon).<\/p>\n

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Disclaimer: Paul and I are friends. \u00a0I bought his book and was not paid for this review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I promised some book reviews, so here’s the first! \u00a0This is an amazing book. \u00a0It is a horrifying, twisted, sick, wonderful book. \u00a0I really really really enjoyed this.   The Street, by Paul E. Cooley, (available here with his other amazing books) explores what happens to Sesame Street, the Muppet Show and Jim Henson’s …<\/p>\n

>>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-book-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1351,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions\/1351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}