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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Night Work the Nightmare, February 19, 2009
This review is from: Night Work: A Novel (Paperback)
The back of the book says that this is a fast-paced read, that is a lie. This is a slow, evenly pace book of one character's strange and unusual meet up with an apocalyptic world.
The story includes no other characters besides Jonas, who wakes up in early July to find that there is no other living being on earth. He has no phone signal, no Internet, nothing. He then goes through a few hundred pages of experiences that are sometimes terribly drab, and other times filled with nightmarish escapades -- most of the nightmare stuff happens, not so ironically, when Jonas becomes the Sleeper.
Jonas has sleep disorders. On one hand, he is a sleep walker -- on the other, he is always tired. He conveniently finds everything he needs: Food, drink, clean clothing, cars, mopeds and trucks. The ease in which he finds everything at his disposal makes the narration more than unreliable, maybe absurd, I don't know.
As negative as this all might sound, I felt compelled to read the whole book. I didn't put it down and took it all in within a week and a half of train rides back and forth to work and sneaking in some reading at home at night. I liked it the most when Jonas was getting philosophical about his life, his love, his girlfriend, love. Everyone thinks about these things at one level or another, and Jonas should have contemplated more of this stuff instead of driving around Vienna.
I am not sure that I'd suggest this book to you -- it seems to me that there are more important pieces to take in dealing with one's thoughts on what makes one's life complete.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bit Boring and Last Man on Earth Now being the Dumbest Man on Earth Just Doesn't Work, January 31, 2009
This review is from: Night Work: A Novel (Paperback)
Night Work starts of well but never moves beyond setting the scene. It's like Thomas Glavinic read I am Legend by Richard Matheson and somehow convinced publishers he too could write a tale where just one guy seems to be left alive in the entire world. Unfortunately Glavinic really couldn't come up with anything after the main character (Jonas) worked out (and he's not too bright so it takes a while) that something quite weird has happened. Since the contract was already there, this obviously got published.
Basic plot is a young guy in Vienna, Austria awakens to discover the TV, Internet, phones and everything are out. His paper never arrives, nor does his bus. He has to come to terms with the fact that he may well be the last person on earth.
The book certainly isn't thrilling as advertised on the back cover as nothing ever really happens. Jonas is definitely no ordinary man as also mentioned either. As far as IQ points, he's lucky to have too many. Any ordinary man (or woman) would probably at the very least concentrate on how he's going to make fresh fruit and meat last as long as he can, maybe even how to plant the decaying stuff so he'll have more in the future, try and prepare for what he is going to do if he actually does run into other survivors (or aliens, vampires etc he doesn't know what happened) and other common sense stuff rather than watching videos. Plus the writing is a bit weak in setting the scenario, electricity still exists even though no one is around to run the plants, if it's still on after a day or two I'd be headed out to the power plant as obviously people are still alive out there.
So many mind debates could have happened with Jonas such as yeah I can now drive as fast as I want and through store windows and stuff without getting into trouble but hey what if injure myself, no one would come out along the rural highway and rescue me out in the middle of nowhere, no one to fix a broken leg. These sort of internal debates would have been great and what the story needed. I mean he just gets into a lift in the tallest tower in Vienna without debating the huge risks ie what if the power now stops and I get stuck, I'll be trapped inside forever, what are the benefits of going up there opposed to the real possibility I could get trapped. He just thinks, yeah the power may go off but I'll risk it.
It's just very weakly written, and Jonas just keeps doing the same thing each day just at a slightly different location. This gets boring real fast, I mean I've been to all the places he goes and there's a bit of I remember that place but even that novelty wears out real fast and if you haven't been to Europe you wouldn't even have that to make it more interesting. I mean videotaping yourself, is this all the author could come up with. Give this a miss, if you haven't already done so go and grab a copy of Richard Matheson's I am Legend (it's a totally different and way better plot than the pathetic Will Smith movie of the same name) and read that instead.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
slow, disturbing, August 24, 2009
This review is from: Night Work: A Novel (Paperback)
The protagonist, Jonas, awakes one morning to find that all other people, as well as all animals, have vanished. Now the suspenseful question is, what is the author going to do with this for 400 pages?
At first, the answer seems: not much. With all other people gone, Jonas soon turns inward. He visits places associated with his past. He makes video recordings of himself sleeping. (What? Why?)
Gradually, a second character emerges: The Sleeper, Jonas's somnambulistic alternate personality; Jonas often wakes up feeling completely unrefreshed and finds that his sleepwalking self has been out and about wreaking havoc, sometimes directly opposing what Jonas has been trying to do while awake.
Although the middle half of the book is kind of slow and boring, the last quarter is strong, and worth sticking it out for.
This isn't a science fiction novel. No attempt is made to explain why everyone vanished; and various things are not completely unrealistic: utilities continue to function, and the world looks basically as it did before, except that it is very quiet. In real life, if all people suddenly vanished, then the works of humankind would rapidly start to deteriorate: the electricity would go out, tunnels would flood, oil refineries might blow up, fires would rage out of control, etc. (Compare the book "The World Without Us".) In addition, with all animal life gone, the ecosystem would collapse. But that's not really the point of this book. This book is about the psychology of extreme loneliness. As such, it is easy to suspend belief and focus on Jonas's inner struggle. (There are also hints that the whole thing could be a fantasy, perhaps Jonas's life flashing before his eyes immediately before he dies. But it doesn't really matter.)
Anyway, I recommend this book if you would like to read something unusual and disturbing and don't mind the slow pace.
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