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A review by dfmjr
Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem
4.0
Amnesia Moon is the first [a:Jonathan Lethem|6404|Jonathan Lethem|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1226285833p2/6404.jpg] novel I have read. This book was written in sparse prose with a downward feel and attitude.
Chaos is a loaner and loser living in the projection booth of an abandoned movie theater which is only playing “Chaos, Chaos, Chaos”, or is he? In an area of Wyoming in a post-“apocalypse” America, Kellogg rules. He controls the people with dreams. And one day, Chaos decides he has had enough and moves on, takes a car a moves on to discover in a road trip what has happened. He heads to California and soon starts having his own dreams of a home and a woman he knew before. He also starts to discover a former identity and finds other isolated communities with different rules and leaders. The McDonaldians, a group of 3 employees that still run McDonald’s, a town where people are required to move 2 times a week and the government employees are the movie stars on propaganda TV shows. And then he is reunited with his former “friends” in San Fransisco. All while discovering more of his past and his quest to go back.
The symbolism in this book sits on a couple levels and Lethem’s prose is as sparse the landscape. Chaos’s want to get to his past and rediscover where he came from and who he was is a compelling story and reminds the reader of their own past and the scattered memories we use to recreate who we were. The book really lives in the present of the character who constantly redefines who he was depending on the past he is shown. I found myself relating to this relationship with the past. We live now, but remember then and look to tomorrow as a reflection of the past when the reality is moving and unsure.
One feature of the book that may frustrate some, but I found really interesting, is the lack of discovery. We never find out what happened to cause the apocalyptic turn. Different people have different stories, much like the past lives that Chaos is shown.
The book had a bit of the paranoia that [a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1197324658p2/4764.jpg]’s writing has and the sparse writing at times echoed [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192825810p2/9226.jpg], though I found Lethem’s prose more lyrical and elegant. I think overall his writing was serving the story without ever getting bogged down in the externals of over running the reader with complete descriptions and unfocused side stories. I found the sparse writing rewarding in the book. It felt like the story, it matched.
Jonathan Lethem writes all over the place, some sci-fi, some mysteries, some coming of age stories, some of the above all run together. I love authors that write like this, that the story is what it is and weak genre defining terms are not there to limit their writing.
Chaos is a loaner and loser living in the projection booth of an abandoned movie theater which is only playing “Chaos, Chaos, Chaos”, or is he? In an area of Wyoming in a post-“apocalypse” America, Kellogg rules. He controls the people with dreams. And one day, Chaos decides he has had enough and moves on, takes a car a moves on to discover in a road trip what has happened. He heads to California and soon starts having his own dreams of a home and a woman he knew before. He also starts to discover a former identity and finds other isolated communities with different rules and leaders. The McDonaldians, a group of 3 employees that still run McDonald’s, a town where people are required to move 2 times a week and the government employees are the movie stars on propaganda TV shows. And then he is reunited with his former “friends” in San Fransisco. All while discovering more of his past and his quest to go back.
The symbolism in this book sits on a couple levels and Lethem’s prose is as sparse the landscape. Chaos’s want to get to his past and rediscover where he came from and who he was is a compelling story and reminds the reader of their own past and the scattered memories we use to recreate who we were. The book really lives in the present of the character who constantly redefines who he was depending on the past he is shown. I found myself relating to this relationship with the past. We live now, but remember then and look to tomorrow as a reflection of the past when the reality is moving and unsure.
One feature of the book that may frustrate some, but I found really interesting, is the lack of discovery. We never find out what happened to cause the apocalyptic turn. Different people have different stories, much like the past lives that Chaos is shown.
The book had a bit of the paranoia that [a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1197324658p2/4764.jpg]’s writing has and the sparse writing at times echoed [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192825810p2/9226.jpg], though I found Lethem’s prose more lyrical and elegant. I think overall his writing was serving the story without ever getting bogged down in the externals of over running the reader with complete descriptions and unfocused side stories. I found the sparse writing rewarding in the book. It felt like the story, it matched.
Jonathan Lethem writes all over the place, some sci-fi, some mysteries, some coming of age stories, some of the above all run together. I love authors that write like this, that the story is what it is and weak genre defining terms are not there to limit their writing.