253 [Paperback]

Geoff Ryman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 1998

A cult classic in the making. 253 is the novel about everyone you've ever met and wished you hadn't or wished you could again. 252 passengers and one driver on the London Underground. They all have their own personal histories, their own thoughts about themselves and their travelling neighbours. And they all have one page devoted to them. Some characters are tragic, some are inspiring, some are mad/proud/foolish/infuriating (delete where appropriate) and some are just like the person near you right now. You'll meet Estelle who's fallen madly in love with Saddam Hussein; James, who anaesthetises sick gorillas for a living; and Who?, a character that doesn't know where, or what, on earth he is. It's a seven-and-a-half minute journey between Embankment and the Elephant & Castle. It's the journey of 253 lifetimes! This is the full text of the celebrated interactive novel that startled the Web when it first went on line. Only it can't crash, the downloading time is quicker and you can read it on the Tube, the train, the bus,, the plane, by foot -- even by car, so long as you're not driving.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Since a fully occupied London subway car would have 253 seated passengers (including the driver), Ryman's diverting experimental fiction contains 253 character sketches of 253 words each. Taking place on a Bakerloo-line train heading south toward the Elephant and Castle station, this interconnected series of vignettes fills a seven and a half minute journey with amazing richness. Ryman, whose novel Was deconstructed The Wizard of Oz, displays a Chekhovian touch with mundane reality, coincidences both absurd and poignant and life's inexhaustible surprises. Among the cast of Londoners, tourists, exiles, immigrants and other passengers is Margaret Thatcher (not that one); an ice-cream manufacturer self-styled "Bertie Jeeves"; a mass murderer's former co-worker and a near-victim of his; Henri Matisse's heir; somebody named Geoff Ryman on his day off; a band of actor-buskers called "Mind the Gap"; and a pigeon. 253 was originally a hypertext posted on the Web, but it makes the transition to print without losing fascinating structural appeal (readers will have to provide the links between the characters for themselves). In case this scenario seems unsuspenseful, it's only fair to reveal that the driver has fallen asleep at the wheel and that the mysterious last passenger provides a miraculous coda. In this low-tech paper-based format, 253 makes for ideal commuter reading and possibly the best subway ride readers will take. (Sept.) www.ryman-novel.com.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ryman's print version of a novel originally published in cyberspace often seems like an adult version of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. The 252 passengers and the driver of a London subway train are hurtling toward a crash in 7.5 minutes. Ryman (Was, Knopf, 1992) devotes a page of text, exactly 253 words long, to each individual, covering appearance, biography, thoughts, and actions. In the web version, the reader makes hypertext jumps to connect passengers. A husband and wife are both on the train in separate cars. Many persons work at the same firms. As in real life, coincidental relationships abound. On the web, it's possible in three or four jumps to arrive at the crash without reading most of the text. The linear essence of print, however, makes it likely that readers will complete the entire novel. Narrative gimmick aside, Ryman's ability to sketch a whole person instantly and create a community of interrelationships eventually involves the reader in his wild ride. For collections of experimental fiction.?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo (February 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006550789
• ISBN-13: 978-0006550785
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,236,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Geoff Ryman is a Canadian living in the United Kingdom. His first book based on events in Cambodia was published in 1985, the award-winning The Unconquered Country. The King's Last Song was inspired by a visit to an Australian archaeological dig at Angkor Wat in 2000. He has been a regular visitor since, teaching writing workshops in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap twice, and publishing three further novellas set in Cambodia. In Britain he produced documentaries for Resonance FM, London, on Cambodian Arts. He has published nine other books and won fourteen awards. He teaches creative writing at the University of Manchester.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite remarkable novel: 253 memorable characters., September 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: 253: A Novel (Paperback)

Geoff Ryman is one of the best writers out there (WAS was a tour de force) and 253 is unquestionably my favourite novel of the last year. Its effect is cumulative. One by one we meet all of the 253 people on a London tube train, all of them -- or some of them -- heading towards their destiny (it's not exactly a surprise -- person # 1, the driver -- falls asleep with his jacket on the dead man's handle on the first page).

The way that stories intertwine and reveal and expose is astonishing. It's like reading a short story collection which slowly unfolds itself into a novel about all of us: funny sometimes, tragic sometimes, human always.

(I'm not convinced that the self-referential joky material between chapters do the book any favours, mind you. But if Geoff finds someone willing to pay him hundreds of thousands to support his writing habit through the final questionnaire, then I, for one, am not going to grumble.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I read all Summer!, August 12, 2004

By 

Brooks Reeves (NorthHampton, Mass.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 253: A Novel (Paperback)

When I first heard about the premise of this book, I was already pretty intrigued. 253 stories about 253 characters, each containing exactly 253 words. I love stuff like that, just simply because of the ingenuity it forces a writer to utilize.

However, this book is a lot more than a clever premise. Each person's tale was a remarkable study. Some of them were so simple and poignant to the point of profundity. Some of them made me laugh outloud. Some of them (the way they interacted) was filled with such clever irony (like the woman whose histrionic pretence that she's being hunted by the IRA actually causes her to be tracked down by a spy). I could pick it up, put it down. Flip through the pages and go "aha!". This book is everything. It's a mystery. It's a novel. It's a poem. It's just just great.

Really. I loved reading this book. Buy it, and I hope you love it too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and unpredictable, March 7, 2004

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: 253: A Novel (Paperback)

In this innovative story originally written for the internet (http://www.ryman-novel.com), we follow the lives of the 253 passengers on a London tube train on January 11, 1995. Each passenger has one page of story told in 253 words, informing about secrets, loves, interests, and whatever else makes the passenger unique and ordinary. In this print version of the internet story, readers not only have the many cross-references, but also some extra information not on the internet where the author reworks to make things more clear, due to the different media of printed text. With marvelous wit and insight, Geoff Ryman creates a surprising portrait of humanity in all its intricacies and commonalities that feeds the voyeur in each reader and leaves us with a distinct vision of what it means to be really living.