The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye

Rating:
Summary: As a huge Lethem fan, I hated this book
Review: After reading Gun With Occasional Music, Amnesia Moon and Motherless Brooklyn and thoroughly enjoying all 3, I consider myself to be a Lethem fan--DESPITE this book.

I have not read any other short stories by Lethem, but I didn't enjoy ANY of the stories in this book. They all start with really interesting and promising ("lethemesque") premesis and then either go somewhere too wierd in what is apparently an attempt to be provocative, or go nowhere. Each could probably be a great novel if flushed out. Instead, they either gross you out, put you to sleep, or bore you to death.

Rating:
Summary: As a huge Lethem fan, I hated this book
Review: After reading Gun With Occasional Music, Amnesia Moon and Motherless Brooklyn and thoroughly enjoying all 3, I consider myself to be a Lethem fan--DESPITE this book.

I have not read any other short stories by Lethem, but I didn't enjoy ANY of the stories in this book. They all start with really interesting and promising ("lethemesque") premesis and then either go somewhere too wierd in what is apparently an attempt to be provocative, or go nowhere. Each could probably be a great novel if flushed out. Instead, they either gross you out, put you to sleep, or bore you to death.

Rating:
Summary: Great writing without much plot
Review: I loved _Gun with Occasional Music_ and _Amnesia Moon_ but this collection didn't really do it for me. _The Happy Man_ was great, I liked _And Forever, said the Duck_, _Vanilla Dunk_ was fun even though I hate sports. But like another reviewer said, no real conclusions, more like story fragments. His quirky style is great, he just needs more room to develop it.

Rating:
Summary: Great writing without much plot
Review: I loved _Gun with Occasional Music_ and _Amnesia Moon_ but this collection didn't really do it for me. _The Happy Man_ was great, I liked _And Forever, said the Duck_, _Vanilla Dunk_ was fun even though I hate sports. But like another reviewer said, no real conclusions, more like story fragments. His quirky style is great, he just needs more room to develop it.

Rating:
Summary: Lethem's Outstanding Range
Review: It is the sign of a true master that none of these short stories bears any resemblance to another, yet each is in its own way outstandingly audacious.

Some worked better than others, and from reading the other reviews here it seems the selection varies from reader to reader. Yet the range and boldness of his ideas nearly staggers the imagination, and to have pulled this off -- not once, but seven times -- is astonishing.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing, yet flawed.
Review: Jonathan Lethem is one of the best authors in the science fiction genre at making things bizarre and psychedelic seem utterly convincing and plausible.

The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye continues in that vein. Each story is set in a carefully crafted world that stretches the mind and defies the imagination. When reading a Lethem story one is almost forced into the position of simply absorbing the language for later digestion as his prose is at the same time lush and full of ideas as well as it is sparse as far as plot devices go.

This is the downfall of the stories in this volume. Of them, only Vanilla Dunk, and the Happy Man have truly conclusive endings, and the latter's ending is obvious right from the start. The rest of the stories simply trail off ambiguously or end rather abrubtly. In either case the stories fail to reach a satisfying conclusion. It feels as if Lethem has these wonderful stories, full of likeable characters and fascinating ideas, but that he doesn't know what to do with the worlds he creates, with his ideas and his characters. They seem to be incomplete.

Overall, however, it is impossible to deny the joy to be had in these stories. In spite of their shortcomings they remain highly well written...tidbits. To call them stories is perhaps stretching the definition of the word a bit since stories generally are brought to reasonable conclusion. But, as tidbits, or story fragments perhaps they serve well to show of Lethem's prowess at characterization and world building.

Rating:
Summary: A solid collection of short stories.
Review: Several works of varying quality. None of them are bad, but I'm sure everyone can find one in this batch that reminds them that Letham is a mere mortal. I'm almost as sure that it is a different story for everyone. If you liked any of his books a lot you will probably like at least a couple of the stories.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating ideas, but one true jewel...
Review: There's one way to describe Lethem's writing: inventive. Reminiscent of Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick at their best, Lethem's stories are some of the most creative works of fiction you'll ever read. Unfortunately, "creativity" doesn't always equal "entertaining." While none of the stories in this book will bore you, some of them are kind of pointless. You'll get done reading them, and you'll be like, that's it? There is one story in here that's worth the price of the book alone, though: Vanilla Dunk. If you are a sports fan, buy this book, ignore the other stories, and read this one. It's about a futuristic basketball league in which players can have the skills and playing abilities of all the great players of history. It's one of the best sports stories I've ever read. Outstanding. I could pass on the other stories, though.

Rating:
Summary: 2 Great Stories, 5.... Aren't
Review: With this collection of seven stories (three of which are reprints from Asimov's) Lethem continues to befuddle me. I loved Motherless Brooklyn, Gun With Occasional Music, and a short story in the Best of Crank anthologyÑbut I hated Amnesia Moon and another story in Best of Crank. While all the stories in this collection benefit from brilliant premises and Lethem's dexterous prose only the two best two ("The Happy Man" and "Vanilla Dunk," both from Asimov's) have true "endings." The other five trail off into nothingness or incomprehensible weirdness that make me wonder if Lethem's subconscious is bound by the old writer's adage that no ending is better than a bad ending.

"The Happy Man" features a dead man who is raised from the dead so he can financially support his family, the catch is that his consciousness must reside in hell part of the time. There he has bizarre nightmares that lead to an unfortunately predictable denouement. In "Vanilla Dunk," professional basketball players are issued suits giving them skills of former greats. From this interesting idea, Lethem fabricates one of the best sports stories I've ever read, as an obnoxious white kid wins the "draft lottery" and gets to be the next Michael Jordan and racial tensions ensue. "Light and the Sufferer" follows a crack addict, his brother, and the mysterious alien who follows them around New York. The humans' story ends rather obviously, but the significance of the aliens is left somewhat obscure. "Forever, Said the Duck" is about a cocktail party inhabited by clones of everyone who's had sex with the two hosts. It's promising enough at first, but degenerates into a psychedelic nonsense. The nifty notion of "The Hardened Criminals" is that convicts are physically hardened and used as bricks for a massive prison tower. Lethem seemed totally unable to make anything out of the premise, however, and when a young criminal meets his father in the wall, the result is rather forced. "Five ..." presents the mystery of a woman who has sex with a man and "loses" two weeks of her life. Unfortunately, the story implodes rather than leading anywhere interesting. The final story, "Sleepy People" is simply odd and makes you wonder why it was included.

Lethem is certainly a creative genius, however, he's still pretty hit or miss in harnessing his creativity. Sometimes he doesn't seem to know what to do with it and ends up writing himself into a bizarre corner. Still, I'll continue to read him to catch the sparkling stuff.