Talking Man [Hardcover]

Terry Bisson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Having dreamt this world into being, the wizard called "Talking Man" falls in love with what he has made and retires there. He lives in a house trailer on a Kentucky hillside close by his junkyard, and he only uses magic on the rare occasions he can't fix a car the other way. He'd be there still if his jealous codreamer Dgene hadn't decided to undo his creation and return this world to nothingness. When Talking Man lights out to stop her, his daughter Crystal and chance-acquaintance William Williams give chase into a West that changes around them. The geography shimmers and melts, catfish big as boats are pulled from the Mississippi, the moon crumbles into luminous rings and refugees from burning cities choke the highways. A novel of the new South with a liberal dose of the old, fantastic and gothic, a road novel leading to the city at the end of time, a postmodern, Sam Shepard, apocalpseone you can drive to in a '62 Chrysler New Yorkerthis is a charming, literate, laconic tale, deceptively brief, teasingly allusive and very entertaining. Paperback rights to Avon.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Arbor House Pub Co; First edition. edition (October 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877958130
• ISBN-13: 978-0877958130
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,755,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Formerly ('75-'02) a Kentuckian living in New York,
currently a New Yorker living in California.

Known mostly for SF short stories (Hugo, Nebula awards),
also writes novels, screenplays, comics and non-fiction.
Biographer of Mumia Abu Jamal. Former automechanic,
wrote CAR TALK with 'Click and Clack'. Produced and
edited NO FRILLS Books back in '80s. Completed ST
LEIBOWITZ AND THE WILD HORSE WOMAN for Walter M Miller
estate. Lives in Oakland. Rides a KLR650.

Hosts monthly author reading series in San Francisco (SFinSF).
Edits 'Outspoken Author' series for PM Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Criminally underappreciated, February 23, 2006

By 

Jim Higgins (NYC, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Man (Paperback)

This is a wonderful contemporary fantasy about a magic man who owns a car repair shop. The young protagonist has to convince him to fix an old car and drive with him to the North Pole. Bisson creates one surreal scenario after another that, though they seem unbelievable, are so palatable they go down like honey.

Bisson's writing is masterful and engaging. It should be a felony for this book to be out of print. Find your self a copy and read. Really.

One of you editors who read this review should get this book back on the shelves.

PS I love Bisson but I seem to be the only one around who doesn't understand the story, "Bears Discover Fire." And I went to graduate school and everything! Anyone out there feel like enlightening me?

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Ever by a Living Author, December 12, 1999

By 

Philip Anderson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Man (Hardcover)

This is Terry Bisson's best work. Never to be duplicated, this novel is the best available of any living author.

Far better than his other great efforts.