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Summary: This is great
Review: I couldn't put this book down for one second. I just had to read what was going to happen next. I love talking Kangarro's and baby's with attitudes. This book is fantastic, it's smart and witty. My favorite new author!
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Summary: The Start of a Beautiful Nightmare
Review: Gun, with Occasional Music, is more than just a quirky, idiosyncratic novel. It's the beginning of an era. The Age of Lethem. Jonathan Lethem is quickly becoming the man to watch in the arena of Literature.A sort of The Big Sleep on 5-MeO-DMT, the novel itself is a phantasmagorical travel through a terrifyingly and hilariously possible future. Conrad Metcalf, a private dick with some serious genital problems, is sucked into the topsy-turvy world of a prominent urologist and becomes entangled in some of the strangest scuffles ever put down on paper. The plot thread that yields the most yuks for your buck is one involving a wayward kangaroo bullyboy named Joey Castle. The novel takes a terrifying turn near the end. I won't spoil it, but it left me unable to sleep for the rest of the night, when I finally finished it at 3:00 AM. Read this if you don't place a high value on sleep.
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Summary: one strange detective story.
Review: A new take on a dystopian future from a very strange angle. This book is an engrossing read, and definitely draws you in and makes you think. Although some of the things it makes you think about arent very nice, so don't go reading it if you are looking for a happy detective story with cartoon animals. Letham has quite an imagination on him.
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Summary: Lethem, the Dickian Hard-boiled
Review: First: I simply couldn't stop reading it after I started. Which includes reading it at 2 a.m., by the way. Second: easy to describe it: it's Raymond Chandler plus Philip K. Dick. Third: it is easy to say that, but it was not easy to *do* that. It reminds of both the honourable tradition of US hard-boiled detective story, and PKD "cop novels" (works like Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and A Scanner Darkly). And it's immensely readable and fascinating. Fourth: between Dick and Chandler there's a thinner, but not irrelevant, slice of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. What do you want more? Read and enjoy!
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Summary: God Bless Jonathan Lethem!
Review: Folks, this is the kind of book that leaves you awake all night after reading it - not just because it's scary in an extremely large, menacing, and ethereal way and not because you keep putting the plot together over and over in your head. There is no doubt that these contribute, but the fact is that Gun, With Occasional is a book that makes you think, that forces you to consider and confront the characters, the situations, and the issues at hand. A lot of people compare him to Phillip K. Dick, and I love Dick's work, but Lethem's work transcends the genre - any genre.
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Summary: A great book. His best ever?
Review: Simply brilliant. He masterfully tells a hard-boiled fiction story set in a dystopian version of the US. The combination of styles would seem difficult to pull off, but he does it beautifully. Though his later books get progressively more experimental, this remains his best book, better even than Girl with Landscape, which is coming out in April.
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Summary: Inventive, masterful, excellent
Review: Loved the babyheads. Loved this book, actually. Nonstop made-up fun. The plot's great, the characters are great, the writing is great, the author's imagination blows me away. This is such a good book. I'll read everything he writes.
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Summary: Phillip K. Dick meets Raymond Chandler
Review: Outrageous, imaginative,and simply great! This sci-fi mystery reads like a cross between Phillip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler ... a "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" for adults. The most original American author since Tom Robbins' first novel
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Summary: Lethem nails the hardboiled voice
Review: I'm reading this one right now, and I think I'm going to just love it. It's a witty sci-fi/mystery. Lethem's books are always interesting and usually funny, and I seem to be able to "hear" them as I'm reading because he captures the narrator's voice so well. In this book, the narrator is a Private Inquisitor named Conrad Metcalf. Metcalf sounds exactly like a Raymond Chandler PI. Chandler's style is often imitated, but Lethem really seems to nail it - enough to bring a huge grin to my face as I read. Here's an example: She and Stanhunt had been freshly separated, and the electricity between them had still been going strong--back when Stanhunt was still capable of generating electricity. Now there was a blackout. I wondered if the lady behaved any differently in the dark. I wondered if maybe she was the one who cut the wires. Now, if you watch "Between the Lions" at all, use your best "My name is Spud, Sam Spud..." voice to read that and you'll know just what I mean. Lethem's got a heck of an imagination too. Metcalf's world has evolved animals in addition to the regular people, and Lethem really knows where to insert them. There's a kitten who gives Metcalf the opportunity to use the line: "Hello, little girl." There are rabbits in the dentist's office and an Irish Setter who delivers for the local deli. Good stuff. This book is going to be so much fun to finish. I hope I can make it last more than a day or two!
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Summary: Promising, well written noir
Review: Gun, With Occasional Music was my first introduction to the writing of Jonathan Lethem. I was recommended the novel based on the fact that I enjoyed Raymond Chandler's excellent Phillip Marlowe novels.
The biggest draw here is the wonderfully rich and colorful world that Lethem has crafted. It's a futuristic dystopia where drugs are mainstream, evolved talking animals and mature babies are common and Karma points play a major role in the policing of the people. This might sound a bit confusing but it's all well explained in the context of the book. You'll find yourself within the world Lethem presents rather quickly and easily. The writing matches the ingenuity. Lethem has a style that recalls Chandler but doesn't tread on copying. The characters are richly detailed and well developed.
The mystery here is rather interesting although I wasn't too enamoured with how the book was wrapped up. The ending felt a bit rushed and I felt as if the character I had come to known for the first 250 pages somehow dissapointed me at the end, although I suppose that's a testament to the quality of writing. The book starts off a bit slow as well, but it picks up quickly after a few chapters as more characters are introduced and the plot line progresses. From then on, it progresses at a rapid pace and you'll find yourself addicted.
Lethem writes promising noir and although I found the ending to be the book's weak point. I hope there is more from Lethem dealing with Metcalf. Here, he has created an interesting character and placed him in a well crafted world with a wonderful supporting cast. It's not quite as well writen as anything Chandler has done but Lethem provides an excellent read for those who enjoyed Chandler's writing or enjoy noir at all.
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