Customer Reviews

The Pickup Artist

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sure to be compared to the Ray Bradbury classic, Fahrenheit 451, Bisson's satirical romp posits a future in which 20th century works of art (books, films, records, paintings, etc.) are being systematically deleted to make room for new artists. Hank Shapiro works for the Federal Bureau of Arts and Information as a "pick up artist," (kind of a repo man/IRS auditor) employed to make house calls to confiscate items that have been "deleted." The story follows what happens when he confiscates a Hank Williams record and has the urge to play it before destroying it (strictly against the rules). It seems his father, who abandoned him, named him after the singer, and Hank hopes to catch a glimpse of his father through the music, which he has never heard. This leads him to an illegal underground "Misdemeanor Cafe" where he tries to buy a record-player but ends up losing the record, and eventually on a surreal cross-country quest with a long-pregnant woman, his ailing dog, an amazingly resilient homing bug, and a dead clone Indian as companions.

Oddly enough, once the road trip starts, the book starts to rapidly loose steam. Bisson has a knack for great little details like various futuristic drugs, including Half-Life, which allows the dead to speak (Hilariously, they tend to say things like, "Oh no! I'm dead aren't I? Tell me I'm not dead!"). Or the giant landfill being burrowed through by miners on a drug called "Dig" who retrieve old ephemera that gets sold in "flee" markets that straddle state borders. Vehicles generally run on a massive electrical grid, and Indian casino chips function as a currency franca. But even with these nifty details, the tripin which Hank is trying to recover the album, and the woman is trying to reunite with an old lovenever really goes anywhere interesting.

Fortunately, every other chapter is a history of how the deletion system came into being, starting with terrorist acts against art and museums, and continuing with the support of the shadowy software giant "Mr. Bill" (Bill Gates, duh), and a celebrity trial. This history shows how the production of art has outpaced the world's ability to absorb it, placing new artists at a stifling competitive disadvantage. It's a kind of interesting satirical concept that Bisson riffs on rather well, but it can't completely conceal the tepidness of the road trip chapters.

Hank Shapiro is a pick up artist. He spends his days confiscating literature, music, art, and movies that have been scheduled to be deleted. Some clients are surly, others just want the money they get for turning items in, but Shaprio is always professional. Its a people job and he's a people person.

The trouble starts one day when he picks for destruction up a Hank Williams record. He remembers that his father gave him the name Hank as he was a fan of this musician. He becomes obssessed with hearing the albumn and even goes as far as to visit a "Misdeamenor Cafe" where someone can hook him up with a black market record player.

Shapiro finds himself on the run with a pregnant librarian called Henry, a dead clone named Indian Bob, and his dog Homer who is female. They travel ever west in search of Hank's stolen record.

Full of interesting characters and also the history of this future world, the pick up artist is both entertaining and thought provoking. Its hard not to compare it to the classic "Fahrenheit 451," but the reasons for deletion are more complex. I highly reccomend this title.

The Federal Bureau of Arts and Information provides a critical service for the people. They pick up, pay`and destroy art that has had its "place in the sun." The importance is to make room for new art because space is at a premium. Salinger and Miller are ancient history, and Shakespeare must have been off planet as the Alexandrians proud of that ancient fire rule the arts.

BAI PICKUP ARTIST Hank Shapiro thinks nothing of seizing a Sinatra or a Monet for ultimate destruction. Hank is polite and professional as he goes about his job as the repo collector. However, Hank makes a colossal error when he collects a recording by his namesake, Hank Williams and cannot resist listening. When he loses the record, Hank is obsessed to regain it. He begins an odd odyssey across the country accompanied by his often-dead dog. They continually run into the Bob clones that seem everywhere and other assortment of weirdoes.

THE PICKUP ARTIST is weird, amusing, and entertaining as if Fahrenheit 451 occurred in Eerie, Indiana. The story line is cleverly written engaging the audience with Hank's story and the history of the fire movement. Anyone who relishes a wonderful satirical science fiction at its most humorous yet quite insightful best will want to pick up award winning artist Terry Bisson's ironic look into the future.

Harriet Klausner

I haven't read science fiction for a long time because science fiction had stopped being what it used to be. Science fiction used to be fun, challenging, stimulating, and critical. This novel brought all of those things back to me and I recommend it unreservedly. It starts with a neatly drawn, nicely consistent future society richly described with gritty detail. The characters are few but interesting and believable. The plot commenses with a nod towards Fahrenheit 451, but travels in unexpected directions. The author's style is reminiscent of Ray Bradbury, Alfred Bester, and Cordwainer Smith. Fine company for a contemporary author.

I had to laugh at the number of "stiff" reviews of the Pickup Artist, here. A fun imagination is definitely required for reading, otherwise the tongue-in-cheek absurdity appears to get lost on some hapless folks.

"The Pickup Artist" is most definitely absurd, but also very inventive, and surprisingly, even thought provoking. "Fahrenheit 451" it is not, nor does it try to be. Bisson is very successful in creating a world unto his own; crazy, yet consistent. The book's ending is solid, satisfying and even poignant.

I would love to read more.

Certainly, there are elements of Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams and Terry Gilliam in this book, but this is less like a story and more like a collection of interesting elements. The plot gets more and more nonchalantly weirder to the point of absurdity, so I was able to skim the last 50 pages without any worry that I'd miss anything important. I believe that the book could be improved by moving the interspersed "history lesson" to an appendix rather than forcing the reader to wade through it on the chance there's something interesting within.

This is my third favourite book in all the world. Seriously. Yes, it's very odd. If you like... say... Lethem, you'll like this.
It is usually thought of as Science Fiction, but I think maybe Speculative would be best. I've lent my copy to two people. One reads 'important' books and got a kick out of it. The other isn't a reader and talked about it for days. He still quotes the dog. Crazy, fun.

What a great premise - set in the nearish dystopian future, a "Pickup Artist" responsible for collecting artistic works that have been identified for deletion from the canon (because newer artists found it too hard to become successful/popular) becomes disenchanted with his life and job and rebels (in his own unique and somewhat unintentional way). Echoes of Fahrenheit 451 combined with dry wit in the first few pages made this seem like a natural fit for me. Unfortunately, the promise of the premise was never exactly realized. The story fell vaguely flat somehow - I am still not sure exactly where it went south, but just know that somewhere in the middle I realized I no longer cared what happened. Occasional witty bursts of prose combined with the premise kept me reading through to the end, but the story never quite seemed to live up to its potential - and more's the pity, because I really did love the concept.

I've been a Terry Bisson fan for a very long time. Each and every story he writes has something very unique to the voice and to the plot. This holds true for this novel as well, but, I fear I have been spoiled by Terry's excellent short story collections. From any other author this novel would probably constitute a great accomplishment in style, tone, character development, and plot, but as a Terry Bisson novel, I was left wanting more.

The premise is, as always, unique and promising, but I can't help but feel it would have worked better as a short story rather than a novel.

Terry Bisson has come up with some unique sci-fi ideas and biting humor in his time, but this underachieving novel doesn't stack up with his best work. This one is inspired by Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and Bisson adds satire with a near-future of culture overload and corporatized bureaucracy, embodied in a bizarre social movement to eliminate old art to make room for the new. This premise, surrounding the pickup artist who hunts down now-illegal artistic works but comes to doubt his mission, has potential, and Bisson keeps things fun with a sardonic sense of humor and an eye for the absurd. Unfortunately, after setting up the useful satirical theme, the novel turns into a tired road trip saga that rapidly runs out of steam, and wacky absurdity has to stand in for the lack of plot movement, with Bisson piling on unexplained gimmicks like a talking dog, a miniature man, and time dilation. This is an example of a book that has a great premise but doesn't live up to its satirical potential. Fortunately, Bisson's talents are on display in plenty of other books. [~doomsdayer520~]