Customer Reviews

Falling Out Of Cars

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4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I agree with the comments of the previous reviewer, but loved it for those reasons. To me the point is in the experience of reading it; the characters don't have the benefit of understanding what or why -- why should the reader? At the time I first read it (and thoroughly enjoyed it) I viewed it as one of his more experimental works even if it is on the surface more accessible than "Cobralingus" or even "Needle in the Groove". Noon was ahead of the curve; certainly there are now a number of well-received "new weird" works where this lack of a tidy explanation isn't viewed as a deal breaker (Jeff VanderMeer's work comes to mind).

A few months ago I read "The Orange Eats Creeps" by Grace Krilanovich which was the first book I've encountered in any way reminiscent of this work (albeit with teenage hobo vampires; add some "Dhalgren"). That book tried to approach what Noon achieved with "Falling Out of Cars" but ultimately failed (in my opinion). This book is ultimately more profound, touching something in human experience. Rereading it 8-9 years later I find it just as powerful.

Recently I spent a few weeks looking for something in plain sight. The lab was cluttered; too much noise. I think at times we all could use a little lucidity.

"Falling out of cars" has all of Jeff Noon's usual surrealism, dislocation and sense of alienation. It's fast-moving and, to a degree, gripping. It's reminiscent of a David Lynch movie. As the back-cover blurb says, this is a novel that refuses to resolve itself, and you will find this either irritating or perfectly appropriate. I have to say that it didn't work for me as well as some of Noon's other novels: "Vurt" and "Pollen", in particular. The main character has too little hope, no connection to place and only the loosest sort of personal connections. All that is appropriate to the endemic sickness of the world described, but it makes it hard for the reader to connect to the story in a meaningful way. One of Jeff Noon's strengths as a SF writer is that he never over-explains, but instead leaves the reader to come to grips with his bizzare worlds by experiencing them through the story. In "Falling out of cars", though, that goes a little too far for my tastes. The reader is never offered so much as a moment of explanation for why all this (the schizophrenic disease plaguing England and, presumably, the world) is happening or what it means for the rest of the world.