Gun, with occasional music
This is Lethem’s first novel, which has lain in my ‘to read’ pile ever since I bought it just after the paperback release.
The recent excellent reviews for his latest novel ‘The Fortress of Solitude’ lead to me finally picking it up reading it.
The novel takes the form of a hard boiled ‘noir’ detective story, but it’s set in a future dystopian America. This is an America where government provided drugs are taken by the population to meet their own needs – to accept, to forget, etc. It’s also a world with ‘evolution therapy’ which allows animals (prominently in this story a kangaroo) to have human level intelligence, and for adults to become ‘babyheads’ essentially an adult in a child’s body.
It’s got a pretty standard detective plot for all the sfnal contrivances around it, though.
It’s obvious that he’s got a fluent writing style and enormous talent.
However this book is no classic. The plot is superficial and the twist is obvious really early on in the story.
I can’t say that I really enjoyed reading it that much, but it’s by no means a bad book.
Rating: C-