Gojiro: A Novel [Paperback]

Mark Jacobson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 1997

Once a normal monitor lizard, Gojiro was transformed into a giant lizard by an atomic test after WWII. Meanwhile, in an Okinawa hospital, Komodo--the world famous coma boy--reawakens for the first time since the Hiroshima blast nine years before. Together, the lizard and orphan venture forth to discover their identities in a world in which neither belongs. The story of their journey is geek love on a truly epic scale.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This remarkable first novel combines the manic energy of monster movies and comic books with a serious and sad look at the post-nuclear world. At center stage are two friends. One is Gojiro, a 500-foot-tall lizard who has swollen to his extraordinary size--and acquired the shrewd brain of higher life forms--as a result of an atomic test. Then there's his comrade Komodo, a human victim of Hiroshima. A mystical and telepathic bond unites them; they make a home for themselves and other radiation victims on a volcanic island in the middle of a "roiling petrochemical sea." But Gojiro becomes a movie star, setting out with Komodo for Hollywood at the strange request of a film producer (whose father was involved with the Manhattan Project tests that produced Gojiro). They soon uncover a plot to test new atomic weapons that, in the best comic book tradition, threatens the world. The plot is fast-moving and fun, but the bulk of the book consists of long, philosophical dialogues between the austere youth and the wisecracking monster--whose hipster jargon is a perfect imitation of the late rock critic Lester Bangs. The novel's beauty lies in the way these often hilarious conversations strike a poignant note while the "mutants" try to come to grips with the horrors of their lives.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Transformed by post-World War II atomic testing into a gargantuan and sentient behemoth, the former monitor lizard now known as "Gojiro" forms a quasi-mystical bond with a Japanese survivor of Hiroshima--a bond which leads them from their island retreat to the glitter of Hollywood and ultimately into a search for the essence of life itself. Bursting with ideas, full of broad humor and epic comedy laced with an underlying seriousness and compassion, this first novel represents speculative fiction at its literary and imaginative best. It is highly recommended.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (December 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802135390
• ISBN-13: 978-0802135391
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,166,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exhilirating experience of a book!, August 2, 2000

By 

Arthur R. Chu (Cerritos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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

This book has touched me as few others have. It really is an awesome and engrossing novel, unusual and eccentric as it may be.

I'm aware it's not for everyone, as I can see by the other reviews posted here. And, to tell the truth, it's not really a genre sf novel, so people looking for long-winded physiological descriptions of Godzilla, leave now.

Frankly, this is NOT a Godzilla book. It is NOT an action-packed thriller or a pretentious hard sf novel filled with technobabble. This is a deeply philosophical work that uses the image of Godzilla, a mistake of human technology becoming the defender of humanity, as a symbol of evolution; mutation becoming adaptation becoming progress. The author freely edits scientific and historical details for the purposes of the story, which is more like an epic poem or painting than a straight narrative; characters, while on one level being very real people, also serve as symbolic archetypes, and the many seemingly-impossible events, while reinforcing the otherworldly atmosphere of the story, also all have a point behind them, once you look. (For example, the creation and growth of Radioactive Island through seemingly haphazard chance serves as a strong metaphor for evolution throughout the story.) The premise, a Godzilla-like creature developing a sort of religious cult philosophy that becomes inadvertently broadcast in a series of movies, seems silly at first, but the thing is, it works. More than that, it works so well that it strongly colored my perceptions of the real-life Godzilla; I'd been aware that he was a symbol of the Nuclear Age before, but this really brought it home to me.

The contrived slang, the "hip" lingo, the monster's cynicism... While some might be turned off by it, it worked for me. If you can start to accept the novel on its own terms, try to understand the beautiful alternate world and belief system it depicts rather than judging it, then before long the internal logic of Gojiro becomes clear, and concepts and events that initially seem silly become poignant and touching. The novel purposely uses unfamiliar, strange-sounding language to get us to see difficult issues in a new light, and get us to think from the monster's perspective. Somehow it all works, it all comes together, and it does make its own mutant kind of sense. Which is really what the novel is about, at heart, evolution and change, misfits from the old order becoming the seed of the new one, mutants making their own mutant kind of sense, and prospering.

The novel's ultimate message was uplifting and optimistic while at the same time remaining realistic and consistent with the cynical points it made earlier; it seems corny and weird, but, in the end, I believed it. It brought the whole novel together masterfully, and the touching epilogue left tears in my eyes. This novel made a huge impression on me, and I'd recommend it to anyone willing to keep an open mind and experience serious ideas from a different point of view.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jacobson creates a beautiful nuclear age metaphysics., May 25, 1998

By A Customer

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

The thing about this fairy tale is that it creates a more beautiful world view than any religion I've studied. The sublime theme of the book is that belief systems, whether they be religious, philosophical, or societal, are all subject to perversion, destruction, and absorbtion from conflicting systems of thought. 'Gojiro' presents a charmingly ridiculous and heart warming system of thought which tries it's best to account for all the craziness of the modern era. It's is tempting to make 'Gojiro' a bible, a centerpiece for a new religion, but 'Gojiro' warns against this sort of reverence, to quote a passage; "...it's a heck of a space saver, having only one book on the shelf. But which Book?" How could any illuminated person not dig this crazy levia-thang, man. Gojiro be the monster that blows metaphysics like Miles Davis blows the bugle, it's jazz for seekers who don't give a damn about finding an answer.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great concept, bad execution, July 22, 2000

By 

eShu (Flower Mound, TX United States) - See all my reviews

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

What a great book this could have been!

The idea that Gojiro not only actually exists, but is also a deep and cynical thinker at the center of a quasi-religious cult is very creative. Unfortunately, there are two problems that prevent it from being the book it could have been.

The first problem is the story: there isn't one. Nothing really happens in this book. In its 300 plus pages there is so little action and character growth that it's easy to find yourself dozing off if you read it at night.

The second and biggest problem is the over-pretentious, forced writing style. Jacobson tries so hard to be hip and trendy that the story (what little there is of one) becomes difficult to follow and the book just becomes painful to read.

"Gojiro" has some great philosophical ideas regarding God and Man, and Nature and Science, but it lacked the cohesion to pull any of those ideas together. Instead we're left with a rambling story with no focus written in a heavy-handed, fake ultra-cool narrative. It's clear that the author had something to say. I just wish he would have said it in English.