Jonathan Lethem
Paperback | Pages: 271 pages Rating: 3.78 | 9503 Users | 961 Reviews
Describe Containing Books Gun, With Occasional Music
| Title | : | Gun, With Occasional Music |
| Author | : | Jonathan Lethem |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 271 pages |
| Published | : | September 1st 2003 by Mariner Books (first published March 1994) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Science Fiction. Mystery. Noir. Crime |
Narration Concering Books Gun, With Occasional Music
Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems—there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse. Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.List Books In Favor Of Gun, With Occasional Music
| Original Title: | Gun, with Occasional Music |
| ISBN: | 0156028972 (ISBN13: 9780156028974) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Oakland, California(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (1994), Locus Award for Best First Novel (1995), IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (1995), SF Chronicle Award Nominee for Best Novel (1995), Tähtivaeltaja Award (2002) |
Rating Containing Books Gun, With Occasional Music
Ratings: 3.78 From 9503 Users | 961 ReviewsCriticism Containing Books Gun, With Occasional Music
somebody lent me this book because they know i love my noir, and the book pays off in that regard but the notion that this is science fiction or a successor to pkd is confusing to me -- the world lethem introduces us to has drugs coming out the wazoo, and there are evolved animals yes, but really? that all seems window dressing, a spin on what is primarily a detective story. lots of what i would consider the speculative elements don't actually seem to go anywhere -- why is text outlawed? what'sSci-fi noir detective story. It's Blade Runner meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and exactly as goofy and dark as that sounds.Conrad Metcalf is our narrator, a Private Inquisitor in a world where direct questions are considered rude and question marks are flashy punctuation. The story's filled with products of evolution therapy: talking kittens and mobster kangaroos, plus the mysterious babyheads -- toddlers with advanced intelligence that hang out in babyhead bars and babble their babyhead talk. I
In Gun, With Occasional Music, Jonathan Lethem gives us science fiction's worthy successor to Raymond Chandler. Though this is the easy take-home message from nearly every quoted newspaper columnist, book jacket blurb, and miscellaneous reviewer -- they also all happen to be right. Even a cursory familiarity with Chandler's pulp noir will ring through with startling clarity to readers of this novel. The cadence of the narrative, the hard-boiled dialogue, the archetypal characters... Lethem's
Raymond Chandler meets Philip K. Dick? I didn't expect to like this odd near future neo-noir quite so much. If you like Blade Runner, The Big Sleep, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit you'll have to give this trippy novel a try. I'm going to have to read more sci-fi noir and Jonathan Lethem in the future.
"Gun, with Occasional Music" is the best kind of science fiction- you barely know it's science fiction at all. Every aspect of the world Lethem has created is in service of the plot, even the bits that seem overly goofy or derivative at first, not the other way around. The story is a slab of thick noir starring the every-P.I. Metcaff. Letham casts the heavy as an evolved kangaroo, and his world also features 3-foot tall evolved babies. While this could come off as "Disney Does Noir", there's
Talking apes, kittens, kangaroos, and sheep in a hard boiled noir detective novel. What's not to love?
Zooming, fast-paced, hardboiled futuristic thriller with an edge that wont say quits.Gun, with Occasional Music - a mix of Raymond Chandler Big Sleep and Philip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the first novel by Brooklyn born Jonathan Lethem published in 1994 when the author was age thirty. Oh, what some writers would give to have this mans talent. The first-person narrator is a private eye by the name of Conrad Metcalf, a tough, handsome chap (what else?) who throw out wisecracks,
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