Down on his luck and still pining for his ex-wife, South Carolina taxidermist Romie Futch spends his evenings drunkenly surfing the Internet before passing out on his couch. In a last-ditch attempt to pay his mortgage, he replies to an ad and becomes a research subject in an experiment conducted by the Center for Cybernetic Neuroscience in Atlanta, Georgia. After “scientists” download hifalutin humanities disciplines into their brains, Romie and his fellow guinea pigs start debating the works of Foucault and hashing out the intricacies of postmodern subjectivity. The enhanced taxidermist, who once aspired to be an artist, returns to his hometown ready to revolutionize his work and revive his failed marriage. As Romie tracks down specimens for his elaborate animatronic taxidermy dioramas, he develops an Ahab-caliber obsession with bagging “Hogzilla,” a thousand-pound feral hog that has been terrorizing Hampton County. Cruising hog-hunting websites, he learns that this lab-spawned monster possesses peculiar traits. Pulled into an absurd and murky underworld of biotech operatives, FDA agents, and environmental activists, Romie becomes entangled in the enigma of Hogzilla’s origins.Exploring the interplay between nature and culture, biology and technology, reality and art, The New and Improved Romie Futch probes the mysteries of memory and consciousness, offering a darkly comic yet heartfelt take on the contemporary human predicament. Romie Futch is imbued equally with the loopy lyricism of Barry Hannah and the whacked out paranoia of Philip K. Dick, the joyous farce of John Kennedy Toole, and the digital dystopia of William Gibson . . . .Elliott's rambunctious tale snarls and growls on every page, aiming to plunge its lovely gnarled tusks right into the reader's heart.-- "New York Times Book Review" The New and Improved Romie Futch not only marks the arrival of one of the funniest, smartest, and most unnerving novels you'll read this year , but also a vision for Southern literature that could only have sprung from Julia Elliott's wild, devastating, and wholly original imagination. Consider me a fan for life.--Laura van den Berg, author of FIND ME: A Novel The New and Improved Romie Futch is a wildly inventive first novel which not only contains some of the most genuinely funny scenes I've read in recent memory, but also contains some truly evocative, poetic prose that will make word nerds swoon when they read it. Simply put, The New and Improved Romie Futch easily ranks as one of my favorite reads of 2015, and I guarantee you'll read this exceptional debut novel in one sitting .-- "LitReactor" The New and Improved Romie Futch romps wildly through a land of feral mutants and monsters of a more civilized kind. But at the story's core is a heartsick man who believes he can be better. In this exceptionally imaginative and funny novel, high culture collides with low, the future torments but also soothes, and the grotesque beauty of our humanity shines through it all .--Diane Cook, author of MAN V. NATURE Romie Futch is imbued equally with the loopy lyricism of Barry Hannah and the whacked out paranoia of Philip K. Dick, the joyous farce of John Kennedy Toole, and the digital dystopia of William Gibson . . . .Elliott's rambunctious tale snarls and growls on every page, aiming to plunge its lovely gnarled tusks right into the reader's heart. --New York Times Book Review [Elliott] blends heady reflections on futuristic biotechnology with lowbrow goofiness and lots of good, old-fashioned Gothic strangeness. The speculative stuff may be fun and freaky, but the book hits its most authentic notes in describing the anxieties Gen Xers face when middle age approaches. --Atlanta Journal Constituion [ The New and Improved Romie Futch ] reminds the cynical, seen-it-all reader sometimes strangeness is enough. Elliott's work . . . contains brilliance. --Kirkus Divorced from beautiful Helen and barely clinging to his business, washed-up South Carolina taxidermist Romie Futch hangs out mournfully with other loser friends. Then he answers an ad placed by the Center for Cybernetic Neuroscience, located in Atlanta, which is seeking research subjects willing to have humanities data downloaded into their brains. In a bid to remake his life, Romie signs up and is soon using language that might stump a Ph.D. But all does not go as planned, starting with his homecoming blackout. Then there's the 1,000-pound hogzilla, another victim of lab intervention now marauding through the countryside, that Ronnie aims to bring down. VERDICT A send-up of self-improvement schemes and self-serving science, this wise and funny book by Elliott (The Wilds) treats its characters tenderly and glimmers at the end. --Library Journal, STARRED In The New and Improved Romie Futch , debut novelist Julia Elliott punches above her weight class , which is not to say that she can't pull off the crackling inner life of a middle-aged, divorced