‘Regional Office’ mashes up genres in the most delightful ways

In “The Regional Office is under Attack!” Manuel Gonzales obliterates the boundaries between literary genres with a mystical cybernetic ninja kick to the jugular.

In a novel that is simultaneously irreverent, gut-wrenching, satirical and sorrowful, Gonzales demonstrates a fresh and varied voice, along with perfect comedic timing.

The book combines elements of traditional realist fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, pulp, and even hints of magical realism while still feeling not quite settled in any one genre. If anything, Gonzales’ novel is itself an attack on snobbish notions of what genres of writing can be considered “literature.”

The Regional Office, a secret organization that employs female assassins who protect the world from mystical threats, is, unsurprisingly, under attack from within by a dissatisfied former member.

The bulk of the novel is told from the perspectives of two young women, Rose and Sarah, who find themselves on opposing sides of the conflict.

Rose is a small-town girl recruited by a brotherly former member of the Regional Office named Henry to spearhead a plot to destroy the organization. She is overly confident, abrasive and deadly in unarmed combat, yet slowly comes to realize her role as a pawn in a petty personal war. Rose’s voice is colorful, to say the least, and is a joy to read.

Sarah, on the other hand, is more tense and conflicted. After losing her mother as a child and later being “adopted” by the head of the regional office as an adult, she struggles to gain the respect of her co-workers and employees while working as a sort of administrative secretary.

She has a robotic arm that can punch holes through walls or the faces of unhelpful interns, if she had the inclination. Despite not having mystical assassin abilities herself, Sarah and her arm are the last line of defense for the Regional Office.

The novel also contains brainwashed oracles of the Delphi variety, a tense hostage interlude, Oedipal prophecy, and asks whether it is possible to retire and open a knitting store after cutting a man in half with a sword.

For a book with such a blatantly bombastic premise and elements of humor that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Douglas Adams novel, “The Regional Office is Under Attack” reaches remarkable depths of ethos and character.

This novel — which begins with the line, “If you were wealthy, but extremely so, and you were in the market for a lavish adventurous getaway, one that might require the retainer of Sherpas” — had me, by the final page, frantically flipping backward, searching for any clues that might help me piece together the shattered lives of these deranged and vulnerable assassins and cyborgs I realized I had come to love.

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 4:43 AM with the headline "‘Regional Office’ mashes up genres in the most delightful ways."