Customer Reviews

This Shape We're In

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

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

First of all, when one judges this book, it should be judged using the correct criteria. This is not an amazing novel, nor is it a story for the ages. What it is is a funny little story and it should be judged as such. Taking the Trojan horse from the Iliad and mixing it with Fantastic Voyages, generation ship Sci-fi, and the Simpsons is a really funny idea. If this book were any longer it would have failed. Any shorter and it would have been a footnote. As it is, it is a very successful and amusing tidbit.

The novella is about a former General with a drinking problem sent by his shrewish wife to rescue their son from chanting as a cultist for something called the Third Eye. Oh yes, and they're all microscopic humanish creatures living inside a horse. So the general travels to the eye where his son is and along the way encounters militia drinking dens, bizarre orgies, barbecues with the horse's meat being used, and a Central Command gone mad.

I have no idea what the book is supposed to be about. It's a brief 55 page novella with large font size so the confusion is over soon but the whole thing is so strange it doesn't make any sense. Why are these humans living inside a horse? What's the business with the Third Eye? Why do all the humans have references to our world and live like we do only inside a horse?

It's bonkers like a Vonnegut-esque story but really is a weak effort from a usually great writer. "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Gun, with Occasional Music" are both excellent novels and I highly recommend those rather than this meandering tale of nothing.

A strange, surreal book. It would be useful if I could compare it to something, but that's just not possible... A man travels through the insides of a cow looking for his lost son, who he believes has found the eye and is observing the outside world. Along the way, he passes groups of people who are barbecuing parts of the living cow, having orgies, whatever. Yes, odd...

As I read the 55 pages of *This Shape We're In*, I kept thinking that I was reading a Philip K. Dick story; this was something I couldn't shake all the way to the end and enhanced by the fact that this is the first thing I have read by Jonathan Lethem, and because of this I look forward to reading more.

It would be difficult to say much about the plot because almost any detail would spoil the reading of this book and the answer to the question that runs through this book: what is the Shape that the characters live in - a multi-generational spaceship? A fallout shelter? - and what will the Eye see - Interstellar space? A nuclear wasteland? That is the most I can give away without ruining the fun of reading this little novella.

And, again, this book would do Philip K. Dick proud! I don't know if Lethem intended this or if his books are very Dickian as a whole.

Hats off once again to McSweeney's Books for bringing this book to us.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

A short story between two hardcovers (large type, lots of whitespace), "Fantastic Voyage" as done by Firesign Theatre. If it had been by anyone else but Lethem I'd dismiss it as a failed attempt to be cute, but since it is Lethem let's call it a successful attempt to write poorly.

This is the most unusual book I've read by Lethem, which in my opinion makes it his best. I really enjoy Lethem's books. Whenever I want to read something very well-crafted yet not the same old boring mainstream garbage, I turn to Lethem. Though I do wish he would write things more on the strange side like This Shape We're In. A lot of his books are pretty tame in comparison.

PROS: 1) Imaginative as heck. I would call this fantasy, kind of like Alice in Wonderland for adults. 2) Smart. A casual reader can enjoy this but an intellectual will definitely eat it up. 3) You'll love watching the unfold mysteries of the world unfold as the characters explore their shape.

CONS: 1) The characters are kind of bland. 2) Once it's over, you don't really feel satisfied. I'm not sure if it's because I craved to read more or it wasn't what I wanted to happen. 3) You'll wish more Lethem books were this cool. He's a great author, but sometimes can get a little too mainstream.

This is a must read for any Lethem fan.

Jonathan Lethem is a smart man. He is an interesting man. He thinks there is something wrong with his liver. So, after a quick and effortless trip to the Oncologist he discovers a savage secret that turns his life upside-down and gives him all the more reason to redouble his efforts to learn all there is to know about hospital management. While before this had been a larky exploration for the sake of one of his typically witty "sci-fi" novels, now it is in deadly earnest. Meet Dr. Joe Mulvaneskrys, an Eastern European emigre from the tiny country of Svatz, who explains the savage "Double Entry" system that holds the key to our country's savage medical inequalities. Meet Suzi Hospero, a young nurse with a secret. Meet Jim Puttanesca, an orderly who actually runs the hospital from his den of black market evil! If you want to learn management tips from the top down, while also picking up typically Lethemesque touches having to do with the colorful folkways of Brooklyn, pick up "This Shape We're In," the most powerful indictment of hospital management since Richard Powers' Operation Sissypants.