Mike Nelson's Death Rat! (first published April 1, 2003) is the first full length novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by American author Michael J. Nelson

Michael J. Nelson

Michael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...

. Mike Nelson has previous experience as the head writer for Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

 and has written two previous books of essays.

Plot summary

Death Rat! is primarily a satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

, with its main subject being the state of Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, where Nelson lives. Among his targets Nelson includes parodies of famous Minnesota residents like Prince and Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...

, as well as the attitudes and quirks of Minnesotans in general.
The protagonist of Mike Nelson's Death Rat! is Pontius Feeb, usually called Ponty, an author of many historical treatises who has just been fired. While working in a fast food restaurant he gets the idea to write a novel of historical fiction

Historical fiction

Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...

 based in the small town of Holey, Minnesota. Feeb's novel revolves around the conflict between two citizens of Holey in the early 1900s, as well as a giant rodent from which the novel gets its name. However, when he tries to sell the novel to a publisher, he is told that he doesn't look right to be the author of an action novel. Feeb then enlists the help of local actor Jack Ryback to pretend he wrote the book and attempt to sell it. Jack sells the novel easily, but tells the publisher that it is a non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

 book, instead of a novel. Jack and Pontius then work with the citizens of Holey to attempt to cover up the book's fictional nature. During their many visits to Holey, Ponty becomes friendly with the town's female mayor. As Feeb's Death Rat grows in popularity, the cover-up becomes harder and harder to maintain, as the rock star "King Leo" adopts the book as the scripture of a new religion, and sets up a revival

Revival meeting

A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...

 in Holey. Meanwhile, a rival Minnesotan author is trying desperately to discredit Jack and "his" book.

In the end the plot is revealed, And after a flurry of lawsuits and media attention Jack and Pontius go back to doing minimum-wage work in St. Paul

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

. In the end, Ponty decides to go live in Holey with the friends that he made there.

Characters

Pontius "Ponty" Feeb - a small bookish history author with a number of failed nonfiction books to his name.

Jack Ryback- a large, rugged failed actor who looks the part of an outdoorsman.

Gus Bromstad - Homespun author of the Dogwood books. Also an egotistical narcissist.

King Leo - A Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

-esque funk superstar.

Sandi Knutson - Mayor of Holey and love interest of Ponty.

Ralph - Barkeep at Holey's local pub, the Taconite.

Parallels to famous Minnesotans

In his first novel Mike Nelson takes the opportunity to poke fun at the most prominent citizens of his home state. The most obvious parallel is that of King Leo, the funk superstar. With his eccentricities and odd monikers it is clear this character is meant to be a caricature of Prince. Gus Bromsted with his homespun books and arrogant air is meant to embody Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...

. Also, Governor Bart Herzog with his over the top personality and military personality is clearly supposed to be former governor and former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura

James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...

.