{"id":383,"date":"2016-02-11T18:39:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T18:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oortcloudreviews.wordpress.com\/?p=383"},"modified":"2022-04-09T10:58:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T14:58:21","slug":"do-re-mi-and-the-big-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/do-re-mi-and-the-big-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Do, Re, Mi and the Big C"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do, Re, Mi and the Big C<\/a> sounds so much like a story about music. Well, it is not. It\u2019s just that Mr. Llime has decided to use these names for his principal characters. Doreen, Remo, Michelle and Solomon are all members of The New Coney Island Vaudeville Show (TNCIVS.) Other than Michelle, the other three have acquired new names at some point or another, mostly to cover their tracks. There are some musical similes, allusions and confusions. e.g.: Solomon is nicknamed the Big C and he is also known as Sol. \u2018C\u2019 in Western musical notation stand for the note \u2018Do\u2019 and as a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, it is pronounced \u2018S\u2019 thus standing for Solomon (\u0421\u043e\u043b\u043e\u043c\u043e\u043d) as well. In addition to all that the Big C is also a name used by people who do not wish to to use the word \u2018cancer.\u2019<\/p>\n

The main story involves Solomon\u2019s alternative cancer cures, and his struggle against an establishment that is trying to make him and his methods go away, though Mr. Llime takes his sweet time before getting to the main topic. Most of the first part of the novel is dedicated to the creation of his main characters and their mesmerizing side show. To use a musical analogy, I would say that he is applying Ornette Coleman\u2019s harmolodic theories to literature. He manages to create a coterie of weird but lovable creatures who live outside conventional morality. There are dwarves, midgets, a giantess, a bearded lady, a human seal and a woman who feels no pain amongst others. The backgrounds, as diverse as upper class Connecticut old money, Marseille bordellos, the Israeli Defense Force, The Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences and a Siberian Gulag, are very well constructed. The protagonists are coming from places as diverse as Ethiopia, USSR, Romania, Israel, India and Greece, China and Lebanon, as well as various states of the American Union. They all meet at the TNCIVS where they put on a great show, when they are not too busy having sex with each other. The two nastiest characters both come from Germany and in an interesting twist they end up on different sides of the conflict.<\/p>\n

I could go on and on, but a review should not divulge all the intricacies of a novel\u2019s plot, so I will just end it with this summation: \u201cWell done Mr. Llime; I\u2019m looking forward to the sequel that you\u2019ve promised.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do, Re, Mi and the Big C sounds so much like a story about music. Well, it is not. It\u2019s just that Mr. Llime has decided to use these names for his principal characters. Doreen, Remo, Michelle and Solomon are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34],"tags":[48,49,50,51,52],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/lost-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":0},"title":"Lost Girl","date":"September 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Spoiler alert: Some crucial parts of the plot are being disclosed, so do not read this if you intend to watch the series. I\u2019ve been hearing good things about this series for a while now. Turns out, Netflix has 4 of the 5 seasons available. I started watching and got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":501,"url":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/501-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":1},"title":"A StarkLight Steampunk Anthology","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Ernie had sent me a copy and asked me to review it when I got a chance. One of his stories had won a contest of some sort and was published in it. StarkLight Press is a small but up and coming Canadian publishing house. It was started and is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/steampunk-250x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":496,"url":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/vinyl\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":2},"title":"Vinyl","date":"April 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I have waited patiently for Vinyl to start showing on HBO. I mean Scorsese and Mick Jagger, together \u2013 wow! The billboards advertising it said \u201cHe didn\u2019t see the future, he heard it.\u201d So, it\u2019s been on for a while now - it gets good reviews \u2013 but, where is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/vinyl-300x166.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/the-lions-the-churchills-some-chocolate\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":3},"title":"The Lions, The Churchills & some Chocolate","date":"August 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have lived in Israel for 14 years (1961-1975.) Still have some ties to that country. Enough introductions \u2013 let me get to the actual subject: Israeli pop\/rock music & me. The sixties (that's when I got there at the age of 14) were a musically enlightening period in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/churchills-300x237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":322,"url":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/uzziah-the-general\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":4},"title":"Uzziah & the General","date":"November 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I am not sure exactly how I can express what I feel every time I hear this kid sing this song. There are hard things that come to mind, so before I say them, let me start by saying that I have only respect and the best of wishes for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":533,"url":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/roadies\/","url_meta":{"origin":383,"position":5},"title":"Roadies","date":"July 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I started watching the Showtime series Roadies and enjoyed that a lot. Somehow I forgot the name of the opening band in the second episode. While looking for that name (turned out it is Reignwolf,) I ran across some very unflattering reviews of the show. The most scathing one is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Roadies-Poster-211x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llimeworks.com\/oortcloudreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}