Rating: 
Summary: An Imaginative Sequel
Review:
This is not the same Gregor Samsa that Kafka created in his groundbreaking work Metamorphosis. While he starts off being the same roach-person this Gregor Samsa speaks and intermingles with society (sometimes to the point where you forget that he is no longer human). But author Marc Estrin's unique departure from Kafka is refreshing. After flying away from a Viennese circus Gregor lands in America where he subsequently meets and interacts with some of the most notable figures of the early 20th century. Gregor's unique bug-like perspective endears him to those that he becomes close to. But it is also this unique bug-like perspective that focuses clarity into America's moral conscience during that turbulent period.
I wanted to give Insect Dreams 5-stars but I did find the book to be a little uneven in flow. Certain parts were drawn out to the point where the book lost momentum that had to be recaptured in later sections. Still, Insect Dreams is an imaginative endeavor that is well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A comic masterpiece impressive for its erudition
Review: "Insect Dreams" begins with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and ends three decades later with the explosion at Los Alamos of the world's first atomic bomb; its 450 pages presents many of the era's major events and personalities as seen through the eyes of--well, of a cockroach.But not just any cockroach. Gregor Samsa is the mistaken-for-dead human-bug mutant who made his debut in Franz Kakfa's "Metamorphosis." In this "sequel," Samsa is rescued by a freak show in Austria, where he teaches philosophy and physics to the masses and eventually meets Musil and Wittgenstein. He emigrates to America and becomes an exhibit at the Scopes Trial and a key player in the Roosevelt administration. Any plot summary (including mine) will necessarily make the book sound positively silly, but Estrin somehow pulls it off--again and again. .... The most enviable aspect of Estrin's debut (and I simply cannot believe that this is his first novel!) is that it manages to frame an extraordinarily satisfying intellectual feast with a page-turning plot that is both hilarious and moving. Encapsulating what was arguably the worst thirty years in human history, yet featuring some of the most brilliant minds ever produced by civilization, this literary masterpiece will appeal to both brainiacs and beach-readers.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the $4.98 I paid for it.
Review: From the start, I found this a most entertaining book. The author admirably managed to tie in the ideas of the time through such devices as the witty conversation with Wittgenstein and Gregor's Spenglerian seminars. Gregor's perspective throws a new light on such figures, particularly if you're already familiar with them.
The overall plot seemed to drag more than a bit at times, and especially during the third section I found myself less enthused by the prospect of continuing. For this, I give it four stars. The books does manage to pick up again in the fourth section, compressing a good deal of thought and plot in before book has ended.
Rating:
Summary: astonishing book
Review: Insect Dreams is a great achievement. The language is precise, rich and resonant, the range of characters vast, the intellectual and emotional content constantly challenging, the story fascinating. Couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book!!!!!
Review: INSECT DREAMS is an allegory following in the footsteps of THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and CANDIDE. Gregor, metamorphosed into a man-sized roach, canters picaresquely through some of the key historical events of the first half of the Twentieth Century as if they were real. The bug's conversations with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Ives, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, FDR, Richard Feynman and J. Robert Oppenheimer-to name only a few-are unbelievably comic as well as profoundly sad. The concept of a roach contributing the vital ingredients to several of the social programs and inventions that make up our "World of Tomorrow" is darkly funny, something like a Jewish joke told in the Warsaw Ghetto. His being bug-brown, Jewish, smart, bearing a chronic open wound inflicted by his father as well as belonging to the insect Order Orthoptera, Family Blattidae (cockroaches), creatures almost universally detested, would indeed seem to be a loaded symbolic trope if Estrin hadn't made his hero so loveable. Estrin's prose is both forceful and graceful. His intelligence is enormous, encompassing biology and medicine, music, literature and of course manners, politics and history. Estrin's sensitivity is deeply moving: he has succeeded wonderfully in extending the life of Franz Kafka's most familiar creature.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book!!!!!
Review: INSECT DREAMS is an allegory following in the footsteps of THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and CANDIDE. Gregor, metamorphosed into a man-sized roach, canters picaresquely through some of the key historical events of the first half of the Twentieth Century as if they were real. The bug's conversations with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Ives, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, FDR, Richard Feynman and J. Robert Oppenheimer-to name only a few-are unbelievably comic as well as profoundly sad. The concept of a roach contributing the vital ingredients to several of the social programs and inventions that make up our "World of Tomorrow" is darkly funny, something like a Jewish joke told in the Warsaw Ghetto. His being bug-brown, Jewish, smart, bearing a chronic open wound inflicted by his father as well as belonging to the insect Order Orthoptera, Family Blattidae (cockroaches), creatures almost universally detested, would indeed seem to be a loaded symbolic trope if Estrin hadn't made his hero so loveable. Estrin's prose is both forceful and graceful. His intelligence is enormous, encompassing biology and medicine, music, literature and of course manners, politics and history. Estrin's sensitivity is deeply moving: he has succeeded wonderfully in extending the life of Franz Kafka's most familiar creature.
Rating:
Summary: UUbooks Selection
Review: Insect Dreams is the UUbooks.org book-of-the-month selection for October 2002. UUbooks is the online reading group for Unitarian Universalists and friends. We consider books by, about, or of particular interest to UUs. Marc Estrin is a former UU minister.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Forrest Gump
Review: This book is a fascinating, entertaining look at world history in the first half of the 20th century. Told from a humorous, objective point of view, all history textbooks should be so compelling. One of this book's strength is that it gives rise to important figures that general history overlooks. I was completely unfamiliar with insurance magnate/composer Charles Ives or physicist Richard Feynman, for example, before reading this book. Estrin paints interesting portraits of both, which I have to assume have basis, though they remain as intriguing as the fictitious characters. The more familiar figures like FDR and Oppenheimer receive warm treatment as well. They come in and out of the observant narrative as quirky as the rest of the characters. A hidden treasure of this book is that it includes Estrin's bibliography. I intend to mine some of those books to learn more about the characters Estrin has introduced so delightfully.
Rating:
Summary: An Imaginative Sequel
Review: This is not the same Gregor Samsa that Kafka created in his groundbreaking work Metamorphosis. While he starts off being the same roach-person this Gregor Samsa speaks and intermingles with society (sometimes to the point where you forget that he is no longer human). But author Marc Estrin's unique departure from Kafka is refreshing. After flying away from a Viennese circus Gregor lands in America where he subsequently meets and interacts with some of the most notable figures of the early 20th century. Gregor's unique bug-like perspective endears him to those that he becomes close to. But it is also this unique bug-like perspective that focuses clarity into America's moral conscience during that turbulent period. I wanted to give Insect Dreams 5-stars but I did find the book to be a little uneven in flow. Certain parts were drawn out to the point where the book lost momentum that had to be recaptured in later sections. Still, Insect Dreams is an imaginative endeavor that is well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: An Existential Cockroach
Review: Twentieth century history is brilliantly reimagined through the eyes of Gregor Samsa, the fabric salesman turned cockroach from Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor begins his "half-life" as a circus performer in Vienna, and then, later, when he migrates to the United States, becomes an elevator operator, as he continues his conscious and unconscious musings on humanity and inhumanity. Gregor lives the "American Dream", following an unimaginable career path, becoming one of the 20th century's foremost existentialists, artists, activists, and insurance industry risk assessors, and in doing so, he provides a funny, tragic, and thought provoking critique of Western civilization, particularly the United States. Gregor suffers from an unhealing wound in his back, inflicted when his father, frightened by his new form, threw an apple at him, a metaphor that is implicitly explored throughout the novel. Gregor stumbles upon so many pivitol figures throughout the book, that in that respect, Insect Dreams is reminiscent of Forest Gump, yet that allusion is delightful. Estrin is erudite, so at times one might need to look up a fact or a figure, but the entire experience is worth it.
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