Frisco Pigeon Mambo by C.D. Payne

Frisco Pigeon Mambo Reviews

• 
  Jason Brown (Toastx2)

  Frisco Pigeon Mambo – C.D. Payne
  
  This book caught me off guard, loaned to me by Jenn as one of her favorite books/authors. I tend not to read the backs of books or movies that I will be consuming immediately as reading the summary or teaser will give away too much information. I find myself remembering bits and pieces of the blurb and wondering when they are going to happen. It isn't as bad as when a DVD menu shows all the good parts in the background, but it is enough that it makes aspects of reading a bit frustrating. I cracked this book open on recommendation alone and was immediately laughing and sucked into the pages.
  
  Frisco Pigeon Mambo is the story of three pigeons (Robin, Honky, Petey). They are "volunteers" in a lab study. Test group C spends all day eating Organic Pigeon Chow, drinking Sherry from beakers, and smoking cigarettes from the “smoke-o-matic”. Each of them believe themselves to be doing the great work of helping out other humans as part of the volunteer study. That's right, I said other humans… These pigeons believe they are people, looking down on the pigeon world they have heard so much about.
  
  One chapter in, whilst they are being read the “Maltese Falcon” by Maryanne (lab tech), members of an animal rights group burst into the room and free all of the animals, even those perfectly content smoking and drinking sherry all day.
  
  These miniaturized humans now fight to survive in a city they don't understand. Stealing cigarettes and booze, they become hated and feared city wide as “the killer pigeons” (though this is confusing to them as they are people, not pigeons). Their only true hope is to find Sam Spade, the detective from the Maltese Falcon story. Spade will guide them to the lab, alling them to continue working for the greater good, and have all the smokes and sherry they can ingest… Ahhh, the good ol’ days.
  
  I suggest listening to Sinatra and other similar music while reading this.
• 
  Meghan Turner

  This book was hysterical and had me in tears almost the entire time. Pigeons that smoke and drink booze, freed from the only home they’ve ever known by animal activists, trying to find a safe home and evade the cops at the same time. Breaking into liquor stores, befriending falcons, flying mannequin limbs across the city, and stealing a van. And the best part is, they don’t even believe they’re pigeons.
• 
  Grete Howland

  Sure, it was fun--and sometimes funny--yet it also felt heavy-handed, and too long for what was clearly an allegory. I suppose Animal Farm wasn't far off in terms of length, but Orwell's characters were much more engaging and diverse, and the plot much more intriguing, than Payne's book. This was an easy read, a silly read, but the ease erred into the territory of boring and the silliness became repetitive quickly. The creativity counts for something, I suppose, and I might recommend it to a younger reader; I, however, probably won't visit it again.
• 
  Carla

  Loved this book! So fun! Narrated by the pigeons who were once locked in cages and used as lab test subjects. Suddenly find themselves free as they have been liberated by a group of activists. These do-gooders have released a group of pigeons that are addicted to cigarettes & alcohol! Now they are running a muck on the streets of San Francisco trying to get a fix. Meeting some very colorful characters along the way which lead to even more shenanigans!! Fun read!
• 
  Anita

  Falcons, pigeons, and parakeets, oh my! This a fun romp through San Francisco following a ragtag group of pigeons that were liberated from a science lab against their will. Through their antics in search of cigarettes and sherry wine, the media soon dub them the "Killer Pigeons". This was a splendid, fun read read with many laugh out loud moments.
• 
  Lou Cook

  This book is hilarious, especially if you love birds, like I do. Our heroes make their escape from the lab and get a ride across the San Francisco Bay to the big city. Once there, they have to figure out to survive and cadge free drinks. A favorite scene is when they learn to fly! What a difference learning to use their wings makes.
• 
  Margaret

  This is not my usual style of book to read, but a couple of friends recommended it; plus it was set in Berkeley and San Francisco ( I live nearby) so I gave it a shot. I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit! If you like quirky books, this one's for you!
• 
  Michaela

  Funny, clever, fresh, weird. I really enjoyed reading the book, just like I did last time, back when I was a teenager.
• 
  MattiasK

  Finally entertaining and funny reading, just what I needed!
• 
  Max Ostrovsky

  I read a couple of books by the same author, C.D. Payne, that were just fun. They were the kind of books you can relax and read while sipping an umbrella drink while lying in a hammock.
  
  One was Frisco Pigeon Mambo. Just all around fun! It tells the story of a group of lab pigeons who, through a series of events, get out from the lab and into the real world. While in the lab, they were given cigarettes, liquor and other lovely vices, included being treated and talked to like they were human. So these birds actually think they are human, just a different kind. You know, the kind of human with wings. The book is about this group adjusting to life on the outside world, stealing cigarettes, conning alcohol, making mischief and mayhem and solving the mystery of a lovely girl and getting back somehow to the lab where everything they needed was taken care of. In the course of this, hilarity ensues. Come on, pigeons who think they're human? What could go wrong? It had a bunch of similarities with Rats of Nymh, but with all the vices included, it makes a more adult fun read. And the pigeons dance.
  
• 
  Ira Carter

  I've read several of CD Payne's playful and light-hearted novels. The best have an off-center humor that rivals the best Christopher Moore of Tim Dorsey. In this book, our heroes are pigeons living the life of Riley in an experimental lab in Berkeley, fed a constant diet of cigarettes and sherry, only to be freed by an animal liberation front and cast onto the mean streets of San Francisco without their favorite drug and drink. How they become Killer Pigeons and whether they are redeemed, I will not tell here, but this is a wacky tour de force that will keep you turning the pages and slightly disappointed because you will not want it to end.
• 
  Sarah

  A clever satire by the amazingly hilarious C.D. Payne. I loved the concept but I think the idea would have worked better as a short story. It's not at all a long book (only 185 pages) but the humor of the satire drags a bit in the middle section. Still, Payne is a master of word play. 'Frisco Pigeon Mambo' is not as engaging as the journals of Nick Twisp, but it is very clever and manages to provide comedic commentary on issues such as animal rights, politics, gender identity, disability, religion, and family structure.
• 
  Craven

  So, these lab pigeons, who have no clue they are anything but human, are given all the cigarettes and booze they want in a study. Then animal rights activists raid the laboratory and set them free ruining the sweet gig they had going for them. They're suddenly turned loose on the streets of San Francisco, still thinking their human and attempting to score booze and cigarettes and trying to find their way back to the paradise they were robbed of, the lab.
  
  
  Sound stupid? It's not. It's allegorical and quite funny.
• 
  Erin Fitzgerald

  And I quote "One morning, pecking through a tray of moldy Mexican birdseed, I told a suicidal client to 'get a grip or get a gun.' That afternoon, I flew out the door during a family crisis melee.""
  
  Yup. Get ready for fantastically dry humor that'll bring your perilously close to wetting your pants!!
• 
  Robert Wechsler

  The perfect travel reading for a trip to San Francisco. It is a first-pigeon novel by a pigeon who, with his friends, has been freed from a Berkeley lab and dumped in the wilds of San Francisco. Its principal weakness is, like so much popular fiction and film, the second half’s action orientation. A 3.5.
• 
  Angela

  this is a wacky book and possibly supports my idea that we should create city pigeon "teams" and fight them. i mean, few people that live in a city like pigeons and i think there are more than enough of them that we could loose some with no tears.
• 
  Jenny

  I wanted to like this book more. It had a great concept and I was optimistic after reading the beginning, but the bulk of the book was slow. Even at 185 pages, it feels like it needed to be a short story instead.
• 
  Maleah

  Back when my kids were tiny, my strategy at the library was to take about thirty seconds to zip down an aisle and grab the first book that looked interesting. This was the result of one of those trips, it was bizarre and amusing.
  
• 
  Allie Smith

  I picked it up at the library as a "blind date with a book." I had no idea what it would be about. I couldn't put it down... Or should I say I kept dropping it because I laughed soooo much. Hilarious book
• 
  Francisca

  Birds addicted to booze and cigarettes are set free from the research lab by animal activists and then...well, among other things, they need to get the goods to feed their lab-induced addictions. Gay bids, teen birds, older, wiser birds, scammer birds. Yup. Works like a charm.
• 
  Jamaica

  Stop being so serious and have some fun with some hard-living pigeons.
• 
  Lisa

  hilarious
• 
  Melia

  fast read, entertaining for SF locals
• 
  Pörshi

  Love the story, what a great idea! Crazy...
  got the german version