Monster, 1959

This hilarious but serious book is a basic retelling of the King Kong story, but with a sympathetic, neanderthal-like character as the monster. Named K. this creature has, like King Kong, lived on a secluded island. In this version, however, K. get some sort of vague explanation as to how he came into being, since the neighboring islands had been testing sites for atomic bombs, therefore dousing K.'s island with radiation. As the story progresses, the simple minded K. is monsternapped, taken on a touring circus show around the late 50's world of the United States, and ultimately ends up perched on top of the Statue of Libery after a chase through the city. As in King Kong, K. becomes fascinated with a female character, Betty, although in his mind, it is a vague, primordial feeling of importance, and not actual beastly lust. The entire story is written in such a way that it paints the events of the 50's into an interesting, almost modern sense, and I sometimes found myself having to remind myself that these were past events, and not current events. All in all it's an interesting, well written, serious story with numerous funny parts that all come together to present a retelling of the calssic King Kong story.