The Aardvark Is Ready for War: A Novel [Paperback]

James W. Blinn (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T) (1997)
• ASIN: B000OTQA2O
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining and original, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Aardvark Is Ready for War: A Novel (Hardcover)

Linn has read a bit too much Jean Baudrillard (who he quotes up front) but that's okay, this book is ambitious as hell. At a time when most writers are retreating to small town fables or "historical" fiction, Linn wrestles with late 20th century weirdness and succeeds with a highly entertaining and original book. Don't pray for the movie--this book is way too internal to make it to the screen. It's too bad that Little and Brown didn't put a bit more marketing muscle behind this book. Maybe someone will get smart and put it out in paperback, but I'd act now and get yourself a nice, new first edition before they all run out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A latter-day "Catch-22", May 13, 2001

By 

TheIrrationalMan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Aardvark Is Ready for War: A Novel (Hardcover)

Though it is not as good as "Catch-22", this novel sparkles with sassy dialogue, military argot and flashy gadgets, becoming, in the process, an authentic account of the technologised conflict which was the Gulf War. It implies how, in the light of how life today is dominated by digital satellite technology, camcorders and computers, everyone has assumed the role of voyeur. The anonymous narrator is a recruit enlisted to fight in the "hyperral" Gulf War crisis, in which, by virtue of the hi-tech surveillance equipment employed, the perception of a thing becomes a way of "manipulating" it. The book is stuffed with borrowings from such postmodern epigones as Baudrillard, and is far more philosophically complex than one might expect, though redeemed also by its irreverent humour.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Not about war, it's about Amerika. . . ., January 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Aardvark Is Ready for War: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you want a war book read Tom Clancy. This book is about everything crackpot Amerikan as difracted through the prism of the Gulf War. The publisher compares it to Joseph heller but really it's more Don Delillo meets Kurt Vonnegut through a wormhole on the backside of the looking glass. Toss in some Celine and the bastard son of William Burroughs and Jean Baudrillard. Stir well and take in one gulp. The funniest, most sarcastic parody I've read since 'Infinite Jest'. The first fun ontological novel. Must be read to be believed. AND, {added benefit) reading it will make you smarter. Pray for a movie. That's all I say, just pray for a movie.