Scan barcode
edgeworth's review against another edition
3.0
Jonathon Lethem’s second novel, Amnesia Moon, centres around a man named Chaos living in the post-apocalyptic town of Hatfork, Wyoming. The bombs have fallen, society has crumbled, the sky is tinted with radioactivity and the mutated townsfolk are reliant on a tyrant named Kellogg for their food. Less than 30 pages into the book, after making him admit that he can’t remember how long ago the bombs fell or what he was doing when they did, Kellogg convinces Chaos that the truth of their world is “a little more complicated,” and Chaos sets out on a post-apocalyptic roadtrip to uncover the truth.
Lethem’s first novel, Gun With Occasional Music, felt like a neat concept for a short story that had been stretched out into a novel. Amnesia Moon feels more like a collection of short stories patched together to make an extremely surreal novel, and I was unsurprised to learn, after finishing it, that this is precisely the case. Chaos travels across an America devastated by wildly different apocalyptic events – everybody agrees something bad has happened, but it appears to be different everywhere he goes. The only unifying element is that each location is dominated by a “dreamer,” somebody forcing their version of reality upon others. The different locales are all drawn from various unpublished short stories Lethem had written.
This is a lazy way to write a novel, but I found Amnesia Moon readable enough, and it has a particularly good ending which suggests that one of the more disturbing realities is in fact the truth. It deals quite a lot with dreams and memories and amnesia, which I normally find tedious, but Lethem is a skillful enough writer that Amnesia Moon is rarely tiresome. I didn’t see much point to it, as a novel, but he’s a good writer and I’ll keep reading him. I look forward to when I get to the point in his career when he’s actually writing novels rather than short stories in disguise.
Lethem’s first novel, Gun With Occasional Music, felt like a neat concept for a short story that had been stretched out into a novel. Amnesia Moon feels more like a collection of short stories patched together to make an extremely surreal novel, and I was unsurprised to learn, after finishing it, that this is precisely the case. Chaos travels across an America devastated by wildly different apocalyptic events – everybody agrees something bad has happened, but it appears to be different everywhere he goes. The only unifying element is that each location is dominated by a “dreamer,” somebody forcing their version of reality upon others. The different locales are all drawn from various unpublished short stories Lethem had written.
This is a lazy way to write a novel, but I found Amnesia Moon readable enough, and it has a particularly good ending which suggests that one of the more disturbing realities is in fact the truth. It deals quite a lot with dreams and memories and amnesia, which I normally find tedious, but Lethem is a skillful enough writer that Amnesia Moon is rarely tiresome. I didn’t see much point to it, as a novel, but he’s a good writer and I’ll keep reading him. I look forward to when I get to the point in his career when he’s actually writing novels rather than short stories in disguise.
shaziareads's review
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mark_cc's review against another edition
4.0
I was worried going in because I was sure that the setting would be left frustratingly unexplained. I was half right.
It was left unexplained, but not frustratingly. Lethem uses the Weird Apocalypse setting to build up mystery, sure, but does much more work to make those mysteries personal to the character of Chaos and the themes of the book. When I started to care more about the connections of people and the society(ies) they made up, the question of what caused the Weird Apocalypse (TM) mattered a whole lot less.
It was left unexplained, but not frustratingly. Lethem uses the Weird Apocalypse setting to build up mystery, sure, but does much more work to make those mysteries personal to the character of Chaos and the themes of the book. When I started to care more about the connections of people and the society(ies) they made up, the question of what caused the Weird Apocalypse (TM) mattered a whole lot less.
blchandler9000's review against another edition
2.0
I had mixed feelings about this book. Lethem created several interesting ideas, but I felt as though he didn't follow through with them. As a dystopia novel, it has lots to offer, but forces the reader to imagine the majority of details and reasons for the story's background and logic. And maybe that's what Letham wanted the reader to have to do—the book is, after all, about people's dreams, perceptions, and reality.
As for characters, I liked Chaos and especially the hirsute girl, Melinda. Letham does a good job of creating likeable people caught in unlikeable scenarios.
This was my first foray into Letham's work (aside from a short story in The New Yorker) and I'm curious about his other books.
As for characters, I liked Chaos and especially the hirsute girl, Melinda. Letham does a good job of creating likeable people caught in unlikeable scenarios.
This was my first foray into Letham's work (aside from a short story in The New Yorker) and I'm curious about his other books.
bookslayer's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
stevereally's review against another edition
3.0
A quick read. I liked it about as much as his Motherless Brooklyn. (The subject matter was wildly different, though). Gun, with Occasional Music is still my favorite Lethem.
guybrush_creepwood's review against another edition
4.0
Lethem definitely takes a page from Philip K. Dick, which believe me I appreciate, but he's a great science fiction writer in his own right. Reading this book is like being dropped in the middle of someone else's dream, the logic of which is a bit hazy and ever shifting. Reality changes drastically from location to location due to some mysterious apocalyptic event. All the locals are controlled by the dreams of petty tyrants which shape their lives and even their bodies. Our protagonist - sometimes Everett Moon, sometimes just known as Chaos- can't remember who he is and how things got this way. He embarks on a cross country road trip from place to place trying to figure it all out. Each place he visits is uniquely bizarre with its own oppressive rules that don't entirely make sense. We never get a lot of concrete answers. Personally I love that sort of ambiguity, but if you're looking for it all to make sense in the end you're gonna be disappointed. Lethem's great at writing characters with depth beyond just how strange they are. The plot is dreamlike, with no definite start or end points, but it has just enough action to keep you turning the pages. I could see that being frustrating if you like reading things that are a bit more structured, but I eat this kinda stuff up with a spoon. 4.5 stars.
chiatt's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
vindiagram's review against another edition
3.0
I have no idea how to rate this book. Sci Fi isn’t really my thing. I had no idea what was going on and I’m just as unclear having finished it. But I couldn’t stop reading. So that counts for something, right?
brea's review against another edition
5.0
very strange post-apocalyptic sci fi book. worth the read though.