Gojiro

Gojiro is the 1991 debut novel by former Esquire columnist Mark Jacobson. It reinterprets the Godzilla film series from the perspective of the daikaiju—not a fictional creature depicted on-screen via suitmation, but an irradiated varanid-turned B-movie star named Gojiro (an homage to Gojira, the Japanese name for Godzilla). Gojiro, a freak mutation with a cynical worldview, suffers the pain of solitude as well as several maladies experienced by entertainers, including drug abuse and suicidal tendencies. The story revolves around his adventures with human friend Komodo, a scientific genius scarred as a child by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, as they attempt to fulfill their "Triple Ring Promise" to bring about world peace. The odyssey takes them from their home on Radioactive Island—also home to several children, called Atoms, suffering from radiation sickness—to several locations in Hollywood and the Trinity site in New Mexico.

The novel is often compared to John Gardner's earlier novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf epic through the eyes of the monster.

Editions

• ISBN 0-87113-396-2 (hardcover, Pub Group West, 1991)
• ISBN 0-553-29743-0 (paperback, Bantam Books, 1993)
• ISBN 0-8021-3539-0 (paperback, Pub Group West, 1998)
• ISBN 1-930815-35-2 (e-book, 2000)

External links

• Sacks, David (1991). "How Godzilla Overcame Despair". The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2006.
• Anisfield, Nancy (1995). "Godzilla/Gojiro: Evolution of the Nuclear Metaphor". Journal of Popular Culture 29 3: 53–62. Retrieved January 23, 2006.
• Gojiro at eBookMall