VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes wrote a YA book as weird as the band’s music.” —The AV Club
Me and Mr. Cigar (Soho Teen | January 14th, 2020) is the wonderfully weird debut YA from psychedelic rock legend Gibby Haynes. It is as strange as you might imagine, more surreal than you would expect, and will move you in ways you could never anticipate. Part road trip, part coming-of-age, and part redemption, Me and Mr. Cigar takes Oscar Lester and his best friend/ enforcer/ magical pet dog, Mr. Cigar on a journey to save Oscar’s sister, Rachel, who has been abducted by a sinister cabal for reasons unknown. Along the way, Oscar encounters ultra-secret technology, agents of the US government, super-wealthy corporate interests, and nefarious art dealers. But his motive to save Rachel always comes back to his dog. Five years earlier, Mr. Cigar bit off Rachel’s hand, and she’s been estranged from them ever since. In other words, this is YA the Gibby Haynes way.
It might seem strange that Haynes, once known as “The Weirdest Man in Show Business” for his lurid lyrics and intense stage presence, would set out to write a book for kids. But take a closer look at the surreal and often darkly comedic lyrics of the Butthole Surfers, and you’ll see it all makes perfect sense. Haynes is a natural storyteller. He is a Texan, after all.
Haynes is also a visual artist, a music teacher, and the father of a young son. Butthole Surfers fans will find plenty of Haynes’s specific brand of weird to rejoice over in Me and Mr. Cigar, but readers will also find the heart and earnestness of a devoted father and mentor. And his (?) dog-loving bonafides are evident on nearly every page. What’s to lose? Take the trip.
“It takes a book as hilarious, bizarre, profane, and heartfelt as Me & Mr. Cigar to truly convey the surreality of coming of age as a teenage boy. This book hit this former teenage boy and new dog owner right in the heart, by way of the gut.”
—Jeff Zentner, Morris Award-winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
