Scan barcode
mrsthrift's review against another edition
3.0
I started reading this book as part of my recent obsession with Centralia, Pennsylvania. This is a small town that has been home to underground burning coal mines since 1962. Much of the town has been bought out and bulldozed by the government. Oh, this is the nonfiction right here. It is stranger, indeed, than the fiction.
Secondarily, I read this book because it is the work of a trans lady, and it is not about transsexuals! Sometimes transsexuals can write about things that don't have anything to do with being a transsexual. I know, it might be hard to believe this, but she does it!
I like the quirky characters, the weird ways their weird lives tangle and untangle and tangle. it's a little predictable, and the plot relies too much on the weirdness of the setting & characters to push the story along, but the faults are forgivable. Some of the more subtle metaphors and obscure gestures were lost on me. One more thing, the cumulative weirdness made it sometimes difficult to suspend my disbelief and fall into the story, but when I found myself believing in the Outcast robbing banks with a burro, it was pretty magical.
Secondarily, I read this book because it is the work of a trans lady, and it is not about transsexuals! Sometimes transsexuals can write about things that don't have anything to do with being a transsexual. I know, it might be hard to believe this, but she does it!
I like the quirky characters, the weird ways their weird lives tangle and untangle and tangle. it's a little predictable, and the plot relies too much on the weirdness of the setting & characters to push the story along, but the faults are forgivable. Some of the more subtle metaphors and obscure gestures were lost on me. One more thing, the cumulative weirdness made it sometimes difficult to suspend my disbelief and fall into the story, but when I found myself believing in the Outcast robbing banks with a burro, it was pretty magical.
jessrock's review
4.0
I put this book on my to-read list years ago after seeing something about it being a novel set in Centralia, the central Pennsylvania town that is largely abandoned because of a coal-mine fire that's been burning underneath the town since 1962. The author's name didn't register for me at the time, but when I went to check The Planets out from the library I discovered that it isn't just some one-off novelty book about a wacky locale - the author has since become far more famous for [b:She's Not There|54935|She's Not There A Life in Two Genders|Jennifer Finney Boylan|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320550178s/54935.jpg|53535].
The Planets is beautifully written and engaging, and it manages to be a book in which every character is deeply weird without, for the most part, feeling forced. Funny things happen, and a couple of the characters do skew a little too caricature-ish, but everything is just a little too sad or world-weary for The Planets to be a "funny book." We get a chance to see inside most of the characters' heads, and almost all of them are more complex than their friends, neighbors, and families give them credit for.
I went into this book without much more than curiosity to see what an author would do with Centralia as their location, and ended up getting totally sucked in. I haven't read anything else from [a:Jennifer Finney Boylan|30973|Jennifer Finney Boylan|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1200414859p2/30973.jpg] yet, but I look forward to reading both She's Not There and more of her fiction soon.
The Planets is beautifully written and engaging, and it manages to be a book in which every character is deeply weird without, for the most part, feeling forced. Funny things happen, and a couple of the characters do skew a little too caricature-ish, but everything is just a little too sad or world-weary for The Planets to be a "funny book." We get a chance to see inside most of the characters' heads, and almost all of them are more complex than their friends, neighbors, and families give them credit for.
I went into this book without much more than curiosity to see what an author would do with Centralia as their location, and ended up getting totally sucked in. I haven't read anything else from [a:Jennifer Finney Boylan|30973|Jennifer Finney Boylan|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1200414859p2/30973.jpg] yet, but I look forward to reading both She's Not There and more of her fiction soon.
spygrl1's review
3.0
I'm usually turned off by overt quirk, but I enjoyed this tale of a skydiver who falls through a roof, interrupting a mime's tryst. There's always a logic to the quirk, a matter-of-factness -- the characters aren't ostentatiously precious about their quirks, they just are who they are.
More...