Jonathan Lethem Books

This is a great book and very original. It blends together originality, an insight into Tourette's syndrome and a detective novel without losing anything on the way.

Highly recommended.

His short stories are wildly creative. And his introduction to an extraordinarily well-written and well-plotted book It Happened in Boston? (20th Century Rediscoveries) by Russell Greenan was a bonus !

In "Motherless Brooklyn", Lethem created a world of small time. Small time mobsters employ much smaller time Frank Minna who employs tiny time Minna Men, of whom Lionel Essrog is the star. His star status is not obvious to everyone. To most around him he officially is a freak, with outbursts of verbal gobbledygook and repetitive jerky motions which scare and befuddle people. Minna, his one real friend, has known him for a smart guy all along, but this is only revealed by the end of the book. And it is at the end of the book that Minna's wife sees Lionel the way Minna saw him and that Lionel ends up earning respectful treatment even from the mobsters.

The readers are in a much better position. We see Lionel as a star from the very first pages: we would much rather listen to him than to any other character in the book. His Tourette's tics are hilarious, and his irony, borne out of inability to suppress them, no less amusing ("You are Lionel Essrog, aren't you?" - "Unreliable Cheesegrub", I corrected). This freaky schlemiel, this giant fly on the wall turns out to be the star student of Minna's and acts as a veritable wise guy: he takes matters into his hands, figures out interests and roles of one organization and 5-6 individuals involved, avenges the death of his friend and negotiates a saner life for him and his friends.

The spirited portrait of Lionel is fresh and memorable. The supporting characters are cast in vivid colors: take the colossal Polish hit man squeezing the juices out of kumquats or a flock of nervous doormen playing mafia...

A beautiful portrait in a fetching frame.

When I heard of an upcoming movie with Edward Norton (one of my favorite actors), and discovered it would be based on a Jonathan Lethem novel, I was compelled to read "Motherless Brooklyn" for myself. I'm new to Lethem's work, and so it was with great relish that I found myself swept into the rich and strange world of a man with Tourette's.

Lionel Essrog is a masterful creation, one of those fictional characters that can carry, even overwhelm, a story--as he does here. He's an orphan, a kid growing into a man on the streets of Brooklyn. Lethem opens his story with a stake-out and then the untimely--and by no means natural--passing of a fatherly figure in Essrog's life. From there, Lethem leads us through the rabbit warrens of Essrog's thinking processes, while Essrog tries to deduce the perpetrator of the crime. Essrog's character and his interactions with others, not to mention his own internal struggles, elevate this average mystery plot into something more.

Essrog is alternately funny, wise, and eccentric. At times, I found myself simply weary of being in his presence. This underlines Lethem's ability to capture the ticcing personality of his protagonist, but it also led to occasional distractions for me. Or maybe I was simply mirroring. Without Essrog's rants and rambles, the book would be cut in half, leaving a bare-bones mystery.

If you enjoy memorable and quirky characters in your novels, this book is one not to be missed. I can't wait to see Ed Norton's portrayal of Essrog, and I can only hope they capture Lethem's magic on the screen.

An old friend of mine gave me this book as a gift. He is my only real connection with Brooklyn. I visited him there several times when he lived on Court Street and we walked its length while he told me stories about his experiences in the neighborhood and the minor wiseguys who sat at the table outside the Italian grocery across the street from his apartment.

Motherless Brooklyn was a gift he chose presumably because of this brief, shared Court Street experience. Much of Motherless Brooklyn takes place on our around Court Street and its place names like Cobble Hill and Carroll Garden are familiar to me. It was a sweet gift.

I've just finished reading it and I really enjoyed it. It was difficult to put down.

It is an endearing story of New York - endearing in spite of its themes of homicide and betrayal. The narrator - an orphan, a borderline gangster/hood with a serious case of Tourette's Syndrome endears himself to the reader.

I loved a scene later in the book that took place in Coastal Maine. It was written by someone who clearly understands and loves the region.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I was given this book by a friend - all I knew is that Chesterton is an amazing writer and I was not disappointed in the least after reading The Man Who was Thursday. The story is intriguing and moves the reader along page by page until one is almost finished with the book before even knowing it. The characters are interesting - and as one person commented about the book - the real characters are the ideas, not the individuals themselves. Chesterton is a master at communicating ideas and then embodies those ideas in characters which connect to the reader. This "psychological thriller" is more than just a quick, easy and entertaining read - it is actually quite provocative and in some sense unnerving in the same way that Huxley's Brave New World seems to strike too close to home in today's culture.

Simply the best spy novel I ever read. Furthermore is a christian allegory of the contradictions of human nature viewed from a sinful perspective, which leads us to the marvelous mistery of the good and the evil, through the eyes of an undercover agent.

This book is simply brilliant, an enjoyable and fascinating read. Chesterton possessed such a magnificent command of the English language, of irony and description and engrossing writing, that I would highly recommend the book simply to allow a reader to marvel at Chesterton's writings.

Yet the book is so much more than simply an enjoyable read. Under the guise of a fantastic and occasionally bizarre tale, Chesterton probes the depths of the human soul and the human condition.

Some have remarked that the book is almost Kafka-esque. Such is a quite accurate appraisal, but Chesterton transcends Kafka, for Chesterton writes an apologeia and theological and epistemological treatise in the guise of a bizarre and scrupulously well-written book. Kafka wrote nightmares because he had nightmares in his head. Chesterton wrote a nightmare because he realized that while the world around us may take on the guise of a nightmare, it is really only "the back of the man," and we can only really grasp the magnificence of reality if we can get around to see his face.

A brilliant book, highly recommended for repeated reading.

I am a Chesterton fan and have read several of his books, mostly non-fiction. "The Man ...." is in my reading, definitely a nightmare and very well crafted as one. The progress of the story line has the kind of time compression and startling disconnections which are so true to a dreamm sequence. There is an exceptional, though not universally appealing, literary quality present in this book for Chesterton to be able to even pull it off, much less to hold the reader's attention through out.

Though Chesterton does deny any ultimate meaning to the story yet I doubt that he could write anything that does not have some satirical content. The sheer originality of the book, the day sequence, the gathered feast at the end with the presiding "week" at the head table could not have sprung "whole cloth" from nothing. It is the kind of story that leaves one with a sense of connection, that a bridge does exist between the themes of the story and the reality of our human circumstance.

Perhaps in making us ponder whether or not it is so, Chesterton accomplished his goal.

Four stars because it does require a disciplined reading at some points. The sheer volume of description is a bit tiresome at times though very well done. It should be required reading in a course on modern literature simply for the uniqueness of it and the craftsman level quality of the prose.

First I'll say that this book certainly lived up to the reputation Chesterton holds as a literary genius. His subtle wit at times had me audibly laughing out loud. The descriptions he uses paint very vivid images in your mind and all the while he manages to hold an incredible level of suspense throughout the novel.

At times a chase scene will digress into an in-depth philosophical conversation among the main characters. And yet this never feels out of place or forced. I had previously only read Chesterton's non-fiction works (which I highly recommend, especially "Orthodoxy"), and wasn't sure entirely what to expect in a fictional work of his. I was not disappointed.

That is, I was not disappointed until the very end. There is a certain literary trick which I have not infrequently seen writers use to "resolve" a storyline that has gotten itself into a lot of complexity. This is particularly used when a narrative begins in the real world and ends taking some fantastical turn for the surreal. Sadly, Chesterton resorts to this trick, which I personally consider a cheap trick. Its like the author asks the reader to emotionally invest in everything that is happening in the book and then at the end, the author gives the climactic equivalent of "just kidding!" To resolve such complexity in a satisfying way and in a way consistent with the rest of the novel certainly takes more thought, more time, more pages. Probably this is why is not an uncommon trick, but, in my estimate, still a cheap one. This novel was great even with the cheap ending, but could've been colossally great had the time been invested to resolve it satisfactorily.

*** the following paragraph contains spoilers***

Only one more point to note: THIS IS NOT AN ALLEGORY. I am unsure if this edition of the book contains the same article extract that my penguin classics edition did, but in it, Chesterton explains that this book was not meant to be a theological allegory. If it were, we would all be living in a very miserable world. Chesterton states in the article: "...then the discovery that the mysterious master both of the anarchy and the order was the same sort of elemental elf who had appeared to be rather too like a pantomime ogre. This line of logic, or lunacy, led many to infer that this equivocal being was meant for a serious description of the Deity... [The book] was not intended to describe the real world as it was, or as I thought it was. It was intended to describe the world of wild doubt and despair which the pessimists were generally describing at that date..."

When I first read the final chapter, I was truly very perplexed as to Chesterton's theological statement. After reading the article (which was placed after the story) it became much clearer. Wherever this article is placed in your edition, I suggest reading it first (or at least before reading the last 2 chapters). DO NOT SKIP IT! You will miss the whole point (most likely). Granted, there are themes that are meant to point to a greater spiritual truth, but it is in no way an "allegory" (as, for example, "the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was meant to portray an almost one-to-one correlation between characters/events and Christian theology.)

Despite the ending, it is still deserving of all 5 stars. A highly enjoyable read.

I read this book in about two or three sittings as the pages flew by. And although I guessed the main surprise, I still loved the way it all unraveled. It made me laugh at times (especially with Uncle Julian) and it made me feel sorry for the characters at times. Merricat was an excellent narrator and I was kind of sad when the book ended. Recommended to those who like a quick read with three dimensional characters.

Although it explores some creepy psychological depths, "We Have Always Lived In the Castle" never really rises to great storytelling - or great story, for that matter. It's a very inward, and at times repetitive, tale about a family that has, for better or for worse, become isolated from its own community. One problem is that after a short while, it generates little interest in the reader for people living in this doomed, backwards household - nor of the people living outside it.

Jackson's dark tale centers upon 18-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood and her older sister Constance - two survivors of a family mysteriously poisoned six years earlier. The two keep to themselves, preferring to stay away from the villagers who taunt and accuse Constance of the murders.

As the story progresses, some of the circumstances surrounding that awful day begin to emerge - though it's clear that Merricat is an unreliable narrator, at best. Thus, the more details are revealed, the more questions the reader has.

Despite the bleakness, the Blackwood sisters are fairly content in their isolated life. They have one another, as well as their elderly uncle Julian, who managed to survive the poisoning, though now with physical and mental issues.

One day, a long-lost cousin suddenly appears at the Blackwood home. It's quickly apparent that it's rumors of the sisters' fortune Charles is after - making Merricat desperate to stop him, no matter what it takes.

Despite the creepiness of the Blackwoods and their "castle," it's also easy for readers to sympathize with some of their feelings about the outside world -- and wonder just what IS really "normal."

A young woman, her older sister, and their uncle live as pariahs on a crumbling estate next to a small town. We first meet the girl on one of her tortuous and torturous bi-weekly excursions into town to get supplies. Something happened at the house on the estate seven years ago which devastated this once prosperous, leading family. The full story is not revealed until near the end of the book and Jackson deals out pieces of information through the main character's bizarre thoughts, the cruel actions of the town's people, and the interactions and rituals of the surviving members of the family in their spooky museum-like house. I doubt that a more insightful, compassionate exploration of madness has ever been written -compassionate without being maudlin or judgmental. The love between the two sisters is of a quality not suited to the world they live in. As in many other Jackson stories, the morals and sanity of small town America take a beating. Wonderfully paced, this is a psychological novel in the best sense of the word.

Here is a book that is hard to review. I know that most of the other reviews are glowing, as Ms. Jackson has a fervent fan base and a brilliant writing style. However this story was not really to my taste. First of all, I did not find this to be a horror story, more of a darker drama, perhaps something you would see on the Lifetime network. The tale is of Constance and Merricat Blackwood two girls of 28 and 18 respectively. Merricat is the voice of the book and all is told from her perspective. Merricat is not entirely sane so her perspective and the voice of the book is not always truthful or even realistic. Mentally she is very young for her age, and after a tragedy that befell the house (the poisoning of all of her family save herself, her sister, and a dying uncle) it is clear that the two sisters have locked themselves away from society and in doing so, reality. Constance stood accused of the murders however was acquitted by the legal system, but not the minds or memories of the townspeople. Taunted and harassed by all but their Uncle they shut themselves in and live a strange, ritualistic life. Throughout the story the truth of what happened that evening makes itself apparent, however the oddness of the women makes the truth obvious from the beginning.

When their money grubbing cousin appears and tries to take the girls estate, the truth about all involved comes to light, but it is expected from the beginning. I guess after reading Jackson's other works, I was disappointed at how simple and unexciting this book turned out to be. Rather than being a story, this is a character study of three deeply disturbed individuals whose grasp on reality has been shaky for years. The book itself is beautifully written, and I can see it being a made for TV movie, or perhaps an old black and white film. Unfortunately I was happy this book was so short because I don't know that I would have wanted to read much more about the characters.

In Gun, With Occasional Music, Jonathan Lethem gives us science fiction's worthy successor to Raymond Chandler. Though this is the easy take-home message from nearly every quoted newspaper columnist, book jacket blurb, and miscellaneous reviewer -- they also all happen to be right. Even a cursory familiarity with Chandler's pulp noir will ring through with startling clarity to readers of this novel. The cadence of the narrative, the hard-boiled dialogue, the archetypal characters... Lethem's Conrad Metcalf is a well-executed Philip Marlowe cover song with just a little bit of record scratching thrown into the background for texture.

On the other hand, those same columnist quotes, blurbs, and reviewers all seem to liken Lethem to Philip K. Dick. Personally: not seeing it. It's a bit of a stretch, some optimistic name-dropping to match up Lethem's mystery/noir heritage with some similarly classic science fiction antecedent. The ubiquitous drug use? Sure, okay -- that's a bit Dickian. A Möbius fold of reality unraveling around the narrator in some palpable and thoroughly eldritch fashion? Not so much. More than PKD, the scenes in this novel played out in my imagination as fearfully symmetrical to Cronenberg's take on Burroughs` Naked Lunch -- substitute Jim Henson-esque "evolved" animals for Mugwumps but otherwise that's it, right down to Peter Weller as Conrad Metcalf.

Or maybe this certain GoodReads.com reviewer has got it down: "It's Blade Runner meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

Where was I? Oh right...

A part of me desires to do a chapter-by-chapter deconstruction of the text, to get all scholarly about it and run the blockade of Chandler's lineage here. I want to look for the hidden significance of the doctors as urologists, to get semiotic on names like "Catherine Teleprompter" and "Danny Phoneblum". But instead I'll just give a positive nod. It's a fun, noirish scifi romp with all the right moves and delivers slightly better than expectations.

This is a Brave New World influenced book that was very original in the fantasy department. I loved it, but then to know what that means, I also like Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase and Hard Boiled novels. Alegorical, symbolic and left open to the mind of the reader to follow or imagine the story. Drugs, detective, women, animals, and cops with a plot and Mickey Spilane type scenario on mescaline. Its a fast read.

Lethem's first book doesn't crackle and sparkle with the literary virtuosity of his later works ("Motherless Brooklyn" and "Fortress of Solitude"), but it is a fine example of the nimbleness of his creative spirit.

"Gun" follows private inquisitor, Conrad Metcalf, around a futuristic California, where animals and babies are forcibly evolved, societal compliance is enforced with measurable karma, and it is no longer acceptable to ask questions. Metcalf's latest client has been killed, and the case is being pasted to a patsy by the big dogs in the government pound. Metcalf makes things uncomfortable (for himself as well as everyone else) in his pursuit to uncover the truth.

It's not an easy task. Metcalf is dogged by a trigger-happy kangaroo, the loss of his masculine nerve endings (literally), and people who take legally-sanctioned drugs designed to induce amnesia. He skims off the dross with typical flat-footed panache, employing the standard P.I. lingo (and glum stubborness) made famous by Chandler and Bogey (although not with quite as much skill).

Although, at heart, this is a tribute to the world of literary noir, Lethem gives us a glimpse of his future import by sewing hefty totems into his weird (but fully realized) world. Orwell it ain't, but it sure comes close; Lethem has more to say about how we enslave ourselves, rather than how others do the enslaving for us.

By turns funny and fast-paced, clever and creepy, slick and sharp, "Gun" is a great diversion. It's certainly not an example of an artist at the top of his game, but it IS an example of an artist learning quite deftly how to break all of the rules. More than anything else, this is Lethem showing us just why he's a writer to begin with -- because he loves it. In the hands of someone as talented as he, it's hard for a reader not to share his enthusiasm.

What a blast! My first exposure to Lethem has me hooked.

I am sure this is the first time I ever thought there could be some connections between drugs, guns, karma, kangaroos, and a few others you have to read to believe (probably the last time, too, unless he has written a sequel).

This is a very funny mix of science fiction, fantasy, detective, dystopia, noir and a few more genres, I'm sure. Lethem told his story tightly, with an unbelievable group of Characters ("C" not "c").

Toward the end, I had to make myself slow down so it would last just a little longer. I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy off-beat, hard to label reads.

It seems that all I ever read these days is Jonathan Lethem and bizarro authors like Carlton Mellick III. The bizarro guys are pretty good and fun to read in a freaky surreal-ish kind of way, but they aren't master craftsmen of the written word. Lethem is. Gun, with Occasional Music is his first book, but probably the 7th I have read. After getting used to the style of his recent work I can really tell how strong his writing has become. He is an excellent author. Even with his first book, you can tell he is an excellent author. But he has definitely improved over time.

PROS: 1) If you like classic crime noir and weird science-fiction, you'll love this book. It is a mixture of those two. Basically, it is just your usual old time crime novel set in a future of mutants and intelligent anthropomorphic animals 2) The mystery unfolds quite nicely. Not only the mystery of the plot, but also the mystery surrounding this odd world Lethem has created. 3) Once you get into it you won't be able to put it down.

CONS: 1) While the writing is good, it is still pretty mediocre in comparison to any of his other works. 2) It was originally published by a sci-fi genre publisher, so it feels like run-of-the-mill genre fiction. So if you are a fan of the literary elements of Lethem's work more than the sci-fi elements you might be disappointed. 3) Though it was intentional, the characters are pretty cliche to that of classic detective stories. This might be a good thing or bad thing. Since I am not a fan of detective fiction, it was more of a con for me.

Overall, I give this book 4 stars. It is definitely worth reading. It's just not as good as most of Lethem's other work. I might have enjoyed it a bit better than As She Climbed Across The Table, but it wasn't as unique and smart as that book. Casual readers might like this one best, so start with here if you don't read a lot of literary fiction. Otherwise, start with Girl in Landscape or Motherless Brooklyn.

This is one of the best Dickens novels I have ever read. The character of Florence is so beautifully developed, and while I was reading, I got the sense that Dickens himself was in love with Florence. There's also that sense of mystery, in the dealings of Mrs. Brown and Alice, and their hatred of Mr. Carker. This book is full of surprises, and I was kept riveted to every single page. This is definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone, and one that I will be reading again and again.

Upon finishing Dombey and Son this morning, I thought back to the first Dickens work I ever read, which was David Copperfield, as a freshman in high school. Since then I have read many others, all with the same extensive cast of characters, side plots, etc.....

Except this one....which makes me question why it is not used as an introduction to the works of Dickens in school curriculums.

Dombey and Son, as a title, refers to the business which provides wealth, title, and position to Mr. Dombey, the aforementioned father. The 'son' refers to a succession of partners in that business, as well as an arrival at the opening of the book, which leads to the demise of Mrs. Dombey. But little Paul Dombey, sharing in his father's first and last names, joins an already present sibling in the world, his sister Florence.

Through the course of the novel, you realize that Dombey and Daughter are really the focus of this story....the fortunes and misfortunes that befall them both, the grievous neglect of one for the other, despite the efforts of the one neglected to reconcile...and a host of others that enter and exit from their lives.

But to recapture and jusitfy my initial point, this book is a marvelous starting point to read Dickens. It is far easier to keep track of the cast of the story, as it is more limited than other Dickens novels, while sharing the same length as most others. The story lines all really do feed into the central plot, and while the 'comedy' that I so enjoy in Dickens's prose is, admittedly, more limited here...it still is a highly enjoyable tale, and a great place to get your feet wet with one of history's best tale-weavers.

Although bittersweet and melancholy in tone, for the majority of the story, Dombey and Son holds up with Dickens's other novels as a true classic.

Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, published from 1846 to 1848 is, like many of Charles Dickens' novels, a tome. But, since it is over 1,000 pages (or if that is just this copy) we can consider it a true tome. Like War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov or The Count of Monte Cristo.

That's all I have to say since I have never read the book. I am a huge Dickens fan and I would like someday to read this tome.

Dombey and Son is a long novel dealing with Mr. Dombey an affluent merchant who has a family in crisis. Dombey's first
wife dies giving birth to little Paul who dies early in chapter 16 in a moving and symbolic deathbed scene. His daughter Florence is shunned by her father but is loved by Walter Gay a sailor employed by her father's firm. Colorful characters populate the many pages of this classic: Captain Cuttle and Sol Gillis who befriend Florence; the evil Mr. Carker and many others who appear in the lives of the Dombeys.
This novel written in 1846 is more thematic, well plotted and serious than many of Dickens earlier works. Dickens had a cinematic imagination; the tale of Mr. Carker's flight is riveting. While not my favorite of the master's works this is a
great book with great characters and story. Well worth the time
to read it and absorb its lessons regarding pride and the need for love and beauty in the human soul.

I just finished reading this gargantuan tome today after two weeks of diligent reading. It is second only to "David Copperfield" in my opinion. It is easy to be intimidated by a book this size (almost 1000 pages) but you must give this one a try! If you adore books that revolve around family dysfunction, this one is perfect for you. It's got characters you will love to hate and it is replete with genuine mysteries. If you have read "Oliver Twist," you will be glad to know that this story's good characters are a little less flat and boring.

As with Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones," there will be a few lulls here and there. In a story of this magnitude, it is hard to avoid...but there are not many. This is truly an enjoyable read. Be sure to get a copy that contains drawings by "Phiz"-- they really add to the overall story.

I must admit I was a little disappointed by this book, a lot of the stories I had already read and the new ones were okay. All in all if buying this make sure you haven't read the stories already then it would probably be a good buy

As with any compilation there is good and bad. More good than bad, and the bad is based on my personal taste. if you enjoy end of the world, or post end of the world stories, this is a must. My only solid compliant is that some of these stories would have made excellent full length novels.

Wastelands is pretty close to the perfect anthology, making just a touch over the magic 4.00 story average.

For an authoritative (the editor does say he is now an expert) look at the sub-genre, it is a bit light on for analytical non-fiction. For readers, less space taken thanking your mates, more time writing about the work would be appreciated, I think.

There is a fairly lengthy bibliography of various written works in and around this particular sub-genre at the back of the book. What is lacking here is one for short fiction, which is a bit odd, for an anthology. There is a good website for the book mentioned here, too, and it is useful, actually lists the contents and authors and other information like reviews. If there wasn't space in the book, then the website would be a natural for this sort of list. Minor issues, but you can't be perfect without 'em.

That said, the more important part is the fiction. This is an extremely strong selection, with a five star story by Doctorow, and several 4.5s to be found. Having many stories of this calibre in one book is not common at all. The pick of the rest include Bacigalupi, Martin, Wells, Barrett and Langan.

Overall this anthology is a great effort.

Wastelands : The End of the Whole Mess - Stephen King
Wastelands : Salvage - Orson Scott Card
Wastelands : The People of Sand and Slag - Paolo Bacigalupi
Wastelands : Bread and Bombs - M. Rickert
Wastelands : How We Got In Town and Out Again - Jonathan Lethem
Wastelands : Dark Dark Were the Tunnels - George R. R. Martin
Wastelands : Waiting for the Zephyr - Tobias S. Buckell
Wastelands : Never Despair - Jack McDevitt
Wastelands : When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - Cory Doctorow
Wastelands : The Last of the O-Forms - James Van Pelt
Wastelands : Still Life With Apocalypse - Richard Kadrey
Wastelands : Artie's Angels - Catherine Wells
Wastelands : Judgment Passed - Jerry Oltion
Wastelands : Mute - Gene Wolfe
Wastelands : Inertia - Nancy Kress
Wastelands : And the Deep Blue Sea - Elizabeth Bear
Wastelands : Speech Sounds - Octavia E. Butler
Wastelands : Killers - Carol Emshwiller
Wastelands : Ginny Sweethips Flying Circus - Neal BarrettJr
Wastelands : The End of the World as We Know It - Dale Bailey
Wastelands : A Song Before Sunset - David Grigg
Wastelands : Episode Seven Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of Purple Flowers by John Langan


Calm mind lost.

4 out of 5


Gold
Always believe in your soul
Youve got the power to know

3.5 out of 5


Immortal ruined future's lack of taste for pets.

4.5 out of 5


Bad snow and strange candy.

3 out of 5


Scapeathon.

3 out of 5


Only a rat.
Pretty big, though.

4.5 out of 5


Late ship stress.

3.5 out of 5


Holo advice from Churchill.

4 out of 5


Biowar makes geekfu and gruntwork a necessary combination afterwards.

5 out of 5


Mutoid zoo show minigirl metamorphosis.

4 out of 5


Author has done it himself :

"Apocalypse is the last gasp of bureaucracy."

4 out of 5


Bike lord's legend.

4.5 out of 5


Mushroom message to heaven's afterlife lockout anecdote answer.

4 out of 5


Tv total dead zone.

3.5 out of 5


Quarantine lack of collapse restraint.

4.5 out of 5


A post-apocalyptic motorbike courier, really, really should have read Ghost Rider in her younger days.

4 out of 5


Literacy despair youth hope glimmer.

4.5 out of 5


He dumped me, but he's still pretty tasty.

3.5 out of 5


Sextape speedup shootout repair hookup.

4.5 out of 5


No Triffids, Kraken, Cuckoos or Lichen.

4 out of 5


I said sing, Piano Man, not strangle.

4 out of 5


Batboy postapocalyptic pregnant prey girl's only chance.

4.5 out of 5

The individual stories that make up this collection are very good. Tastes differ from reader to reader, but there's something for everyone in this long, varied collection. The best thing about this book, as others have mentioned, is the range of stories included.

Most of us come to post-apocalyptic literature from one angle or another, and Adams provides a good mix of the range of ideas that have swirled around the sub-genre since its inception. If you're new to the sub-genre, this is a great place to start. If you're familiar with it, these stories (and the appended bibliography) tell you where to go among today's authors for contemporary visions of Life After.

What an excellent anthology! I believe it takes a great effort and definitely talent and experience to create good anthologies. There are thousands of excellent short stories out there of post-apocalyptic nature. I am sure it takes an enormous amount of time to select few that encompass this greatly dramatic subject. John Joseph Adams has done an incredible job. Wastelands is definitely worth reading.
The stories collected here are hopeful, hopeless, romantic, dramatic, and in some cases even comedic. The range of emotions I felt while reading these stories is incredible. Honestly, I am a bit too emotional sometimes, so reading "The People of Sand and Slag" by P. Bacigalupi has truly saddened me, I wish I skipped this one. However, there are other stories that are in some ways more optimistic and positive, for example "Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus" by N. Barrett and even "Judgment Passed" by J. Oltion (although I don't think many will agree with me on this one). And of course there are really scary stories like " Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels" by G. Martin and "Episode Seven" by John Langan. I think every person will feel a bit differently about each story.
I really like reading post-apocalyptic books, so maybe I am a bit biased when it comes to this subject. However, I do believe that even for people who've never read any "end of the world" books before, this one would be an excellent first read. So, again Wastelands is a great anthology, and I 100% recommend it!

Plaudits to the Library of America for adding the unique and radical genre fiction of Philip K. Dick to their canon of American masterworks. Science fiction fans have long espoused the genius of Dick's revelatory vision of a future world gone wildly out of control. His prose is never wordy, pretentious, or convoluted - the plots are already confusing enough. The typical Dick story is hyper-fast-paced, dropping the reader right into the action with little preparatory exposition, and no sooner do you think you've got a handle on what's going on than he starts throwing major league curves at you. In the dangerous and unfriendly future, Dick's characters are always frantically caught up in the struggle to survive, only to find out that their situation isn't nearly as cut and dried as they'd believed. In contrast to Proust, who tried to show us that life was only what we thought it was, Philip K. Dick, amidst the turbulence of the 1960's, deals with the discovery that your life is NOT what you thought it was. What's often missed is how skillfully Dick fits this revelation into the context of his novels; we aren't so much suddenly in a different world than we were at the beginning of the story than simply more aware of the reality (or non-reality) of our situation than we had been. This sometimes causes some major plot malfunctions, since after all, once you realize that you're dead (for example) priorities can change dramatically, and that's why the conclusions usually don't tie things up in a neat little package. Dick tends to disdain predictable plots and pat endings. Often there's no real resolution at all, but merely a recognition of the true state of affairs, and yes, some readers will find this off-putting, but isn't this more realistic than having the hero beat the villain and then living happily ever after? Like all of Dick's work, these novels are dark, crazy, explosive, and suspenseful and often very funny as well. But if you're self-assured enough to face a world gone totally mad, Dick has some thrilling tales to tell.

Finally: Philip K. Dick gets the recognition and respect he deserves with his addition into the Library of America canon. This volume collects four of Dick's most compelling and visionary novels of the 1960s and serves as a great introduction to PKD's world of panic and paranoia. (The recently published and comprehensive "Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick" makes an excellent companion piece to this edition, but those stories also tend to be gimmicky and hokey where Dick's novels are lean and mean.) For initiates, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" -- collected here along with "The Man in the High Castle," "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" and "Ubik" -- is as good a place as any to start. Deftly combining elements of traditional science fiction with the hardboiled detective novel, Dick explores all of his signature obsessions in this story of a bounty hunter who sets out to exterminate androids in our midst. First and foremost, the novel succeeds as a page-turner -- but it also works on a deeper level, exploring the nature of reality, what it means to be human and the way materialism, or what Dick calls "the tyranny of an object," controls our lives and deepest desires.

This is a great book! The stories are a good selection of Dick's work and arranged in a logical order, ranging from the odd in the beginning to down-right bizarre by the end. I recommend it, whether you're an old fan or new to his writing.
My only qualm, thus four out of five stars, are the tissue-thin pages. They are delicate and easy to tear, and I repeatedly had to go back because I turned two or three pages not one. But the binding, spine, and covers are all topnotch, so I guess that makes up for it.
peace
bwc

I rarely read science fiction, but that was before I was introduced to the work of Philip K. Dick. His prose is clean and precise. His vision of the future from a 1960's standpoint can in one paragraph be eerily right-on and in the next, quaint. It's a future where typewriters and moon colonies, cigarettes and time travel, can all co-mingle seamlessly and believably.

The Library of America (LoA) has issued a volume of Philip K. Dick's novels from the 1960, and in so doing has legitimized PKD as a "classic" American author -- in this case an author of science fiction. You can get this volume by subscribing to the LoA, or by getting it thru Amazon, which at this time is far the cheaper method. (The main difference between the two vols. is that the LoA version comes in blue cloth with a slipcase, while the release to bookstores -- Amazon included -- is a regular hardback with a dust jacket.)

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE does not take place in the future, as conventional sci-fi does. It is set in the time and place Dick wrote it -- San Francisco in the early 1960s. It is the past that has changed. FDR was assassinated in 1936; his successor, President John N. Garner, remained too isolationlist to re-arm America in the face of growing Nazi and Japanese threats. As a result, the USA lost World War Two; the eastern and midwestern parts of American going to the Nazis, California and the Pacific Northwest to the Japanese. In between lies a Rocky Mountain redoubt called the "CSA," chief city Denver, which is where the novel's multiple, shocking climaxes take place.

HIGH CASTLE has compelling plotworks along two story lines, but what the initial reader will notice is how the Japanese influence postwar San Francisco and how, eventually, they stop being the dictators as much as gentle giants atop of the government and business elite. The story with the Germans in the East is far more gruesome, and fortunately for us is related by one character, a Jew "in the closet," because the Japanese-held CSA would probably have extradited him to the Nazi East Coast for, apparently, what we all fear from Nazis.

THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH takes place in the "not-too-distant future," on an Earth that has almost globally-warmed itself to death. The main character lives in a co-op block in "Marilyn Monroe," a suburb of New York City. On a normal day, the temperature hits 180 degrees F. and ordinary people go and come only after dark, or with the help of intermediaries like pre-chilled taxis.

PKD was good friends with sci-fi author Robert Heinlein, and the Heinlein touch is apparent not only in the satiric tone of the novel but in the neologisms Dick invented. He saw the rise of blogs, although he called them "homeo-papes" (short for papers). Even though many of the terms took different names, the prescient point is that Dick foresaw and foretold them. And the new monikers are easy to figure out though a bit startling -- part of the fun IMHO. The hero, who is Palmer Eldritch's enemy, finds himself drafted and sent to a chilly moon of Jupiter by the resettlement-happy United Nations. Desparate refugees clinging to these moons are truly happy only when ingesting hallucinogens by chewing a specialty lichen!

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? was the origin for the movie BLADE RUNNER. As usual, Dick did not warn of a post-atomic world; neither did he foretell a slick, high-tech and comfortable future. Insted, the grungy L.A. of near history was well presented by director Ridley Scott in BLADE RUNNER. The plot is driven by a Raymond Chandler-esque detective story, but as often happens in PDK literature, a philosophical question emerges: what is human, anyway? Is a machine (android) tuned to be a human and act human of the same stature as a human?

UBIK, first published in 1969, was Dick's most far-out novel to date. It is an imagining of spiritual realities distracting from and then supplanting the ordinary humdrum of unpleasant reality. In essence it takes themes he raised in PALMER ELDRITCH and rode them far into speculation. But the novel is amazingly fun and easy to read for all that.

If, after reading this product, you find yourself interested in this compelling man and his struggles with poverty and schizophrenia (and of course how he hatched many of his ideas!), take a look at the Afterword of this LoA volume, because it really is a nice tight biography of Philip K. Dick.

Want to read more? The LoA has a companion volume with five of PKD's novels of the 1960s and 1970s. Ready for short stories? THE PHILIP K. DICK READER is new, fresh, and packs in lots of stories, including "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," the inspiration for the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie TOTAL RECALL. Also "The Minority Report," which title Hollywood did not change for the movie. Do not look for biographical or critical comment in THE PHILIP K. DICK READER, though; the cost of the book's efficiency is the fact that it has no commentary or biography, just the stories themselves.

This is the most unusual book I've read by Lethem, which in my opinion makes it his best. I really enjoy Lethem's books. Whenever I want to read something very well-crafted yet not the same old boring mainstream garbage, I turn to Lethem. Though I do wish he would write things more on the strange side like This Shape We're In. A lot of his books are pretty tame in comparison.

PROS: 1) Imaginative as heck. I would call this fantasy, kind of like Alice in Wonderland for adults. 2) Smart. A casual reader can enjoy this but an intellectual will definitely eat it up. 3) You'll love watching the unfold mysteries of the world unfold as the characters explore their shape.

CONS: 1) The characters are kind of bland. 2) Once it's over, you don't really feel satisfied. I'm not sure if it's because I craved to read more or it wasn't what I wanted to happen. 3) You'll wish more Lethem books were this cool. He's a great author, but sometimes can get a little too mainstream.

This is a must read for any Lethem fan.

First of all, when one judges this book, it should be judged using the correct criteria. This is not an amazing novel, nor is it a story for the ages. What it is is a funny little story and it should be judged as such. Taking the Trojan horse from the Iliad and mixing it with Fantastic Voyages, generation ship Sci-fi, and the Simpsons is a really funny idea. If this book were any longer it would have failed. Any shorter and it would have been a footnote. As it is, it is a very successful and amusing tidbit.

For those who have read any of Jonathan Lethems' prior novels, you'll recognize and appreciate the full sweep and scope of this mans broad imagination. In this beautiful, cloth bound edition (with a limited 10,000 print run), he takes us on another wild, ambitious ride.

The author enters you into the human body to explore what truly operates within. It's a journey tale- where the respective heroes find the satisfying validity of redemption after slogging through the accepted, taken-for-granted state of their world.

I've always enjoyed Lethems' fascination and portrayal of the human condition. He's one of those gifted authors that understands how to slam the reader straight into the midst of his crafted world and into the minds of his (always unusual) protaganists. Furthermore, he tells an intriguing tale the only way he knows how; by using the poetry and glory of the english language to craft an awe-inspiring gasp of gratitude and fulfillment.

If only Lethem would publish every novel under Mcsweeneys! We'd have his entire collection in the most attractive format possible!

Lethem has proven himself to be a virtuoso of story-telling. His books, for the most part, inhabit a plane of existence that defies much classification, and they wield their creativity with the force of a sledgehammer but the precision of a scalpel. Although his work can sometimes be uneven, it is always entertaining, and certainly never average or boring (to be fair, though, his short stories are hit-and-miss).

This little nugget is, for the most part, a success, but it also comes across as only partially-formed. And although it is, as usual, beautifully and skillfully told, it seems to be less a fully realized tale and more a creative exercise. Lethem, here, is just stretching is literary limbs. Consider listening to a highly touted operatic singer practicing her scales: it's still beautiful singing, and it may even be fun to listen to, but it isn't a song, and there's just not that much to it.

As I read the 55 pages of *This Shape We're In*, I kept thinking that I was reading a Philip K. Dick story; this was something I couldn't shake all the way to the end and enhanced by the fact that this is the first thing I have read by Jonathan Lethem, and because of this I look forward to reading more.

It would be difficult to say much about the plot because almost any detail would spoil the reading of this book and the answer to the question that runs through this book: what is the Shape that the characters live in - a multi-generational spaceship? A fallout shelter? - and what will the Eye see - Interstellar space? A nuclear wasteland? That is the most I can give away without ruining the fun of reading this little novella.

And, again, this book would do Philip K. Dick proud! I don't know if Lethem intended this or if his books are very Dickian as a whole.

Hats off once again to McSweeney's Books for bringing this book to us.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

This is a wonderful book, very well written, with a great cast of characters. I recommend it highly!

on the back of my copy there is a blurb from kurt vonnegut jr that says this is "surely the great american prison novel." well, i haven't read a whole lot of prison literature, but i would love to find another book of this kind and calibur. "on the yard" soars with a strong narrative drive and a large cast of interesting & fully developed characters. in my life's reading, edward bunker's memoir "education of a felon" is the only comparable peer that this book has in american crime writing. great stuff. i now very much look forward to reading mr braly's memoir "false starts."

The NYRB lost classics series strikes gold again-- a rich, masterful, deeply authentic journey through prison life in the 1960s. With arresting imagery, and captivating characterization, Braly, himself a long-time con, leads us on a labyrinthine tour of the world behind the walls. His powers of empathy render every character as a tormeted, struggling, human soul.

Today, in America, we take it for granted if you do something wrong and get caught your going to the big house. So much so that no matter where you live or what you make you probably know someone stinking up a prison cell. Most of us have very little notion of what life is really like inside of a real prison where a few people try to live normal lives behind glass. These are usually the crimes of passion people not the career criminal. This book spends alot of time paring the crimes of passion people against the perpetual criminal. Of course no one wins in the end.

The prison depicted in this book is somewhat dated, reminding me somewhat of the prison in Brute Force, the Dassin/Lancaster film. The author has a disjointed perspective jumping from person to person, backward and forward, much like a film. He probably watched alot of films during his 15 year stint alot of westerns i'd guess...

If you can imagine what it's like to to shed 40 years of skin around some of the craziest loons never to read a book then you can imagine why we need more novels about prison life. I consider this the confederacy of the dunces of prison novels.
Read it and bolster boy, enjoy them and be good.

The best part about these sketches of citizens of the mythical village of Winesburg is the simple but often lovely prose. The best told parts of the story and the parts with the best prose, deal with the Bentley family, the pastor who is unable to repress his sexual voyeuristic tendencies, the young gal who on a whim runs outside naked into the rain hoping it would relieve her mental strain, and some other parts.

The book is full of gloomy individuals dealing with dashed hopes, unfullfilled emotional needs, sexual repression, etc. Some of the characters suffer to some degree from psychological imbalance. Anderson focuses a great deal on the inner psychology of these characters. His presentation is reasonably realistic and effective though he loses his effectiveness somewhat toward the end. It may be difficult for a 21st century reader to recognize behavior and ways of thinking from late 19th century rural Ohio, but I think they are recognizable enough. Jesse Bentley is an interesting character. It is understandable, I think, how a man like him, facing the harsh conditions of rural Ohio in the 19th century, might develop a religious fanatacism that crosses the border into insanity.

One thing that struck me about the book is the meager insight the reader gets into George Willard's thoughts about the sometimes mentally unstable people who make rambling speeches to him about their philosophies of life, dashed hopes, etc. Perhaps George is too naive and has not seen much of the world in his 18 years of life, all of it spent in a rural village, and so he thinks the people he talks to are merely interesting folks and very ood people. Anderson does provide psychological insight into George's striving to find love and his struggles to reach adulthood, though I don't think this insight is always well presented toward the end of the book.

Anderson clearly shows the dashed hopes of some of the female characters in the book who are looking for real love but have husbands who don't share their particular conception of love.

Winesburg, Ohio is a collection of 20+ short stories about life in the small town of Winesburt, Ohio (a fictional town). The great thing about these stories is that they overlap and many of the characters make more than one appearance. The book covers life at the turn of the century and deals with everything from: envy, lonliness, wanting a sense of adventure, love, being lost, family and just gettin' by.

It's not a fast paced book by any means, it's a thoughtful composition of every day life, which is exactly why it is so enjoyable!

Winesburg, Ohio was written by Sherwood Anderson about a small town in Ohio. Not the town now known as Winesburg, Ohio, but another smalltown called Clyde, Ohio.
I read this book in 9th grade & I could recognize some of the places in the book. They are still there in my hometown.

This is one of those books which juxtaposes stereotypes with realities. This is an amazingly well written book delivered in amazingly clever style.

The book is about the good life in the small town of Winesburg, where the good life is not so good for all of the folks. The warm and fuzzy people in Winesburg can be as cold and abrasive as the city folk. Young lovers in Winesburg can grow to become old people who hate one another. A momentary mistake in judgment can become an everlasting scar on one's integrity among peers in Winesburg. Best intentions by grandparents to grandchildren can be received in a worst manner. Winesburg is the All American City where bad things can happen to good people.

Like his peer, Theodore Dreiser ("Sister Carrie" and "An American Tragedy"), Anderson depicts American ideals in less than appealing colors. True stories, or fictional accounts, include failures as well as successes. Most people are donned as ordinary, and the extraordinary worthy of literature are often the happiest 5% and the saddest 5%. Anderson concentrates on the latter.

But, do not believe this is droll or mundane reading about others' hard luck. This book is indicative of its time. Not belabored by overly aggressive use of the English language, it flows easily in its narrative. Like shipyard yarns, you must hear or read more. The stories snare you. And, you seem to want to read the next when you finish what you thought to be your last.

Before I started, I read that this was a group of short stories which all take place in Winesburg. I think one could also describe the book as a novel about George Willard which is delivered in a short-story format. It discusses young journalist Willard's observations of his town and how he, like Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey of "It's a Wonderful Life", is busting to get out of his small town.

And, this book - written a century ago - amazingly reads well today. Anderson really hit a chord with this reader with this book.

Often credited as an inspiration by the renowned literati of the 20th century, Sherwood Anderson exhibited his subtle fineness and simple genius when he penned `Winesburg, Ohio' in 1919. Told as a collection of short stories, the `grotesque' inhabitants of the secluded town of Winesburg begin to relate to a young reporter, George Willard, and open up from the confinements of their society, revealing their inner hopes that will never be fulfilled, and their true sentiments that will remain repressed.

In each story, the reader is invited to observe the attempts by different townsfolk--of all social glass--attempting to seek recognition, respectability and happiness within the community, while all the time internally seeking to justify their own existence in a society that does not seem to befit the effort. Cynicism abounds, as the characters either accept their failed hopes, or are seen to shrilly grasp onto the last motivation for any seemingly purposeful existence. While each character has the potential to be of some significance, all fail in achieving this, remaining inconsequential to the wider world. The opening up to George can be seen as a desperate to attempt to inject solid meaning onto their lives; unintentionally offering George (and the reader) a glimpse into the likely the future for the majority.

A book which explores the emotions behind failed ambition, despair and social cohesion, `Winesburg, Ohio' is a classic cogitation on the American Dream and the place of the individual in the greater world.