Tunnel Vision

Rating:
Summary: A Light, Fun Thrill
Review: "Tunnel Vision" should not be placed next to The Canterbury Tales, Crime and Punishment, Pride and Prejudice as one of the greatest works of all time. It just doesn't have the weight of a classic. That does not mean that it isn't a fun adventure to be greatly enjoyed. I loved Tunnel Vision because it was not a serious book full of deep philosophy. It has touching moments but it is for the most part, just an escapist adventure. Anyone who has been on the London Underground can appreciate the setting in this book and understand the problems that the main character faces. Even if you haven't been on the LU, you can still enjoy this fun and exciting book.

Rating:
Summary: Marmite in writing...
Review: Having lived in London for two years, I feel I can enjoy this book more than most people. If you have no pior knowledge of the London Tube, this book is not for you. It will probably end up boring you after the Prologue. Well, unless you want to be completey lost in a mental picture of London for 200 some pages.

There is plenty of action to satisfy me (considering that Les Miserable by Victor Hugo is one of my favorites, that's not saying much) and some enjoyable, as well as thought provoking, romance for those who like that (that would include myself). And that's what I found the whole book to be: though provoking. It wasn't as evident, I felt, as it could have been but there were many parts I found myself saying "Ohhh...I've never looked at that part of London that way before!"

Quite simply, it is an enjoyable read. There is definate room for some improvement, but it is not terrible or all that boring once gotten into (I will say I read it straight through tonight, right after getting it from my school library), but it all depends on what you find humorous and what you find boring.

Personally, I wouldn't over look it by someone else's opinion. I think this book is like Marmite: you love it or you hate it.

Rating:
Summary: A good concept but tries too hard
Review: I felt bad - I am so Puritanical in my consumption of books that I almost ALWAYS finish them, even if it takes me months. I couldn't finish Tunnel Vision. The concept - a groom-to-be has to visit every station in the London Underground in one day in order to get the tickets to his wedding and honeymoon - is intriguing. And I'm a fan of the Underground, having lived in London.

But Lowe simply tries too hard to make it cute. The sublties in plot that most readers would catch without prompting, Lowe is compelled to spell out. He does the same with his descriptions - takes it one step too far. For example, I stopped reading the book when I came across something to the effect of: "I decided to button my lips like I had just buttoned my blouse." That's just superfluous. He doesn't need to make it cute - the mere premise of the book would have made it cute enough. And the readers are more intelligent than he gives us credit for. If you must read this one, borrow it. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Made me want to ride the subway
Review: I read this nice little piece of light fare while spending half of a recent vacation in St. Thomas. I found myself itching to get to New York, where I spent the rest of the trip, and ride the subway. It's difficult to fathom how the main character, Andy, got himself into the predicament that outlines the plot, but it nicely sets up the redemption story that is woven within. The characters feel a little underdeveloped, especially Rolf, but then again, I'm about the same age as the Andy character, and I'm probably a bit underdeveloped as well. Dialogue is sharp, and the trip through the tube's stations was frenetic and well-paced. Good debut for Lowe.

Rating:
Summary: Is there an award for the quirkiest and most eccentric plot?
Review: Many a story begins with the premise of a drunken bet, but this novel takes it to a ridiculous extreme: The narrator bets a friend that he can visit all 267 London subway stations in a single day. The stakes? Get this - he bets his fiancée against his friend's collection of historic subway tickets. This is all a tad difficult to swallow, especially since the fiancée seems to be quite a catch, but once you accept the premise, the novel is well-written. This is Keith Lowe's first work, and he shows an ability to create believable characters and dialogue. However, a reader's appreciation of this book will be proportional to one's familiarity with the London Underground system.

Rating:
Summary: Went a little long, but altogether enjoyable...(3 1/2 stars)
Review: This almost 400 page book takes the time of an entire day starting at 5:00 in the morning. Andy leaves his flat early while his fiance Rachel quietly sleeps. He's supposed to leave on the Eurostar train with Rachel, at midnight, but he happened to make a bet with his "friend you love to hate" Rolf, who is a "tube enthusiast," like himself.

So, the bet goes like this. Rolf thinks that Andy cannot travel around the ENTIRE tube in a single day. Andy thinks that he can. He is supposed to go around and take pictures of all of the signs, pick up envelopes that are taped to non-moving trains and behind soda machines, and finish before the Eurostar is supposed to leave. He is supposed to receive the last envelope from Rolf, which contains his tickets. Will he make it?

Knowing the unpredictability of the London underground, this made for an original plot. There can be delays, accidents, people throwing themselves on the tracks. He can't take any overground transportation, it has to be the tube. If Rachel finds out about this bet, where he basically threw his marriage in the pot, would she still marry him? She tries to ignore his obsession with the underground, but this is ridiculous.

All in all, it was fun to read about. It was very detailed and made me wonder if the author walked through his book, tracking down small details as he went. For a while, I was starting to wonder if it would become boring, following Andy through his travels all alone, but he met Brian, a homeless man who jumped on his coattails. Andy is annoyed with him at first, but the longer they are around each other, they start to form an unlikely friendship. Brian makes the story a little more readable.

I didn't give it more stars because even though it was interesting, it wasn't engrossing, and I picked up and put down the book several times before I finished it. Maybe it was the length of the novel. Maybe, even though I'm obsessed with London and it's contents, that a book about traveling on the underground doesn't have enough drama for me. But, it was a nice ride, all the same.

Rating:
Summary: an evening's worth of entertainment
Review: This book drew me in immediately.

The first person narration by Andy is delighful. He tells his story as though he were speaking directly to me, the reader. I found this particularly engaging. This technique helps the story immensely because we, as readers, are able to sympathize with Andy. His obsessive tendencies, delusional optimism, and extreme paranoia don't seem that freakish when viewed through his eyes. Andy just seems like a good guy.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever gotten carried away, anyone who tends to be a little obsessive, or anyone who likes a good action filled book.

The story moves quickly and so do the pages. Read this book for fun. The first few chapters had me laughing out loud.

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining...
Review: This book made me laugh out loud in many places. Interaction between characters felt real and believable. It was also a bit mysterious with the character Rolf doing some stalking and ducking in and out along the stations, and his obsession with British Museum Station in the beginning of the novel. It made me wonder if he weren't planning something truly devious and unforeseen, almost turning the novel into a cloak and dagger bit. Very good!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but by no means a classic.
Review: When I read the back of the book to get a quick description, I was immediately interested. And as I read the book cover to cover in a short time, I was entertained throughout. However, this isn't exactly classic literature, but more a book that reads right into a movie script.

The book has a few interesting elements that pepper the story. The first of which is Andy's flashbacks about his history of Rachel. They seem to come just at the right part of the story, and they seem to end just the same. Lowe stops the flashbacks about halfway through the book, trying to give us the same feeling that Brian (Andy's homeless pal-for-a-day) likely has.

I also enjoyed how Andy's part of the story was written in first person, while the chronicalling of Rachel's day was written in third. It is a welcome break from trying to take in the constantly changing thoughts we get from the narrator.

I was just a bit disappointed by the lack of detail in points of Andy's journey itself. Sometimes, Lowe seems to go way too heavily into Andy's thoughts and past, and leaves out simple observations. Maybe this fits into Andy's character as a tunnel enthusiast, but for those of us who don't study the tunnel (or have never even been to London), a little more general description would have been nice.

Anyway, I believe that if you feel like having a very entertaining read, this is a great book to buy. Like I said, you'll go through it quite fast due to the action-filled journey that doesn't let you put the book down. Cheers to Lowe for a great first novel.

Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable (if shallow) Pageturner
Review: Whether you like this book will depend on large part how willing you are the accept its basic premise: that a slightly geeky 20-something Londoner would keep a drunken bet (his passport, Euro Star pass, and honeymoon tickets vs. a collectible set of train tickets) that he could travel the entire London tube system in a day, that day being the one before he gets married. If you're willing to roll with that premise, then you're probably willing to overlook the shallowness of the characters and the herky-jerky flow of the book. Some may find the protagonist Andy a bit hard to like, since he's largely in a mess of his own making, however he's got just that right balance of geek and everyman about him to keep you rooting for him. For reasons that are never explained, a homeless man of remarkable stamina, coherency and wisdom decides to tag along for the fun, which gives Andy someone to relate the story of his relationship to and someone to save the day from time to time. Andy's friend Rolf, with whom he made the bet, is at least given some motivation for his nefarious actions-although he also comes across as a one-dimensional supergeekvillan.

The story is probably best appreciated by those who've had wide contact with the London tube, although you could pretty much do the same story in New York (although it would take more like a weekend). In fact, don't be surprised if the movie takes this route (and there will be a movie, rarely have I come across a book that translates so directly to screen as this). Of course, one expects complications and wacky hijinks to ensue, and they do, but somehow aren't as wacky as one expects. And then there's a whole semi-conspiracy subplot which peters out disappointingly. In any event, like many other young male novels of recent years (High Fidelity comes to mind), the book attempts to probe the idea of the adult boy becoming an adult man and leaving behind childish things (or at least keeping them in their proper place). However, it never really lives up to its potential there either. In the end, what one has is a book that never quite lives up to its potential, but is nonetheless an enjoyable pageturner.

There are plenty of other books available on the London tube, including Geoff Ryman's interesting hypertext novel, "253," Simon James' collection of photos "Mind the Gap," Tobias Hill's thriller "Underground," Barbara Vine's mystery "King Solomon's Carpet," and Christopher Ross' book about working on the tube, "Tunnel Visions."