Lethem, author of the bestselling Motherless Brooklyn , returns in concentrated form - packing twice the adventure into one-eighth the pages. This book could be some kind of allegory book, but it might not be an allegory book at all. It involves people and drinking and people looking for a giant eye. It is among the best things Mr. Lethem has written.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something to tide you over...,
This review is from: This Shape We're In (Hardcover)
"This Shape We're In" is, to make no bones about it, a minor work from the strange genre of fiction that he's created in his last 6 books. It's a short story, but unlike those collected in "Wall of the Sky..." it's a much quieter and contemplative story. Talking about the plot would too easily give up some of the fun of reading it. Within the first 5 pages, a twist that most writers would have left for a jarring Twilight Zone kind of ending is told nonchalantly. For the rest of the book, you marvel at the depths of Lethem's ability to weave as big a world as he does in a mere 55 pages, and forget about how he's going to cap it all. Lethem's primary strength seems to be to focus on a genre and get inside it and then twist it around and turn it into some strange new transmutation...where genre conventions get thrown out the window and replaced with these odd new parts that are vaguely out of place, but still run perfectly in sync. For what it's worth, Lethem has yet to write a book that can be considered "bad" or even "mediocre". If you're a fan of Lethem, or just considering dipping your toe in, this book is essential stuff. If anything, it's a nice snack to tide you over until Lethem's newest book comes out. For 9 bucks, you aren't going to get a much better package. Well put-together, beautiful cover by Chester Brown (of Ed the Happy Clown and The Playboy fame) and you're supporting McSweeney's Books, who seem hell-bent in delivering the literary goods without resorting to big-imprint prices. Go get it, for the good of the written word.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Enough,
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This review is from: This Shape We're In (Hardcover)
Lethem has proven himself to be a virtuoso of story-telling. His books, for the most part, inhabit a plane of existence that defies much classification, and they wield their creativity with the force of a sledgehammer but the precision of a scalpel. Although his work can sometimes be uneven, it is always entertaining, and certainly never average or boring (to be fair, though, his short stories are hit-and-miss).
This little nugget is, for the most part, a success, but it also comes across as only partially-formed. And although it is, as usual, beautifully and skillfully told, it seems to be less a fully realized tale and more a creative exercise. Lethem, here, is just stretching is literary limbs. Consider listening to a highly touted operatic singer practicing her scales: it's still beautiful singing, and it may even be fun to listen to, but it isn't a song, and there's just not that much to it.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
shades of magic realism (and a low price),
By
This review is from: This Shape We're In (Hardcover)
Lethem's longer works are, naturally, more involved than this bite size portion (55 pages). But don't let that scare you, this book should not fall through the cracks! It delivers an odd tale about a disorganized band of misfits lumbering through an almost unrecognizable landscape which is still strangely familiar. If that sentence describes the kind of fiction you like to read, grab this book, and you won't be disappointed. There is plenty of symbolism, shades of Kafka, Borges, Calvino, etc., and the prose is very smooth. No doubt you'll be looking forward to more Lethem quite soon after finishing. The ending will likely leave you perplexed and thinking. (ps- I maintain a Lethem website-- take a look
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