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A review by sausome
Total Oblivion, More or Less by Anya Johanna DeNiro
4.0
An altogether interesting read. I'm having a hard time pinning down my feelings about it as a whole, though. I read the book with the assumption that absurdism played a pretty big part in this post-apocalyptic United States, and I think it greatly helped. I mean, so much of it is absurdist, but not all in a bad way. Sometimes it seemed like the tossing-in of wacky stuff might have taken away from the experience of the book as a cohesive story, but other times, it seemed to fit, like seeing giraffes wandering about with empty saddles after a battle won by the Empire was just how it had to be. I think the cover of this edition fits the book perfectly, in the whole mashing together of all kinds of crazy, and perhaps it was all a dog's dream.
I experienced this book as a Thomas Pynchon work (I've only read "Crying of Lot 49," so, accessible, but batshit crazy) mixed with a really warped kind of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain tossed in. The story centers around the Midwest and traveling up and down the Mississippi River on small river boats, trying to avoid capture by Scythians or Empire soldiers, etc. Both of these aspects felt like good things, I might add. I'm aware that one can read into that as being a criticism, but it felt alright.
Another interesting aspect of the story was the complete lack of explanation for ANYTHING that was happening -- who are the Scythians? Where did they come from? Who is the Empire? What's the deal with this wasp plague? Why does everyone just go with this massive change as if nothing was happening? How does a city become built with 60-story skyscrapers from castle-stone with a system of draw-bridges linking buildings, in less than 6 months? What?!? I actually kind of liked this lack of explanation -- the author obviously had some guts to go at this in this way.
My one complaint ... St. Louis, Missouri should just never be referred to as "Lou". Uggh. I cringed every time I read this as a reference to St. Louis. It seriously felt like an uncool parent trying to use the kids' slang, but totally screwing it up because "Lou" isn't something anyone from St. Louis would say. Just had to say it, being from St. Louis, it's not "Lou", "The Lou", "Louie", "St. Louie" (like in the movie, NO). Thatisall.
Thanks, Mr. DeNiro, for coming into Left Bank Books and giving me a copy to read ... a St. Louis post-apocalyptic book, who'd have thought?!
I experienced this book as a Thomas Pynchon work (I've only read "Crying of Lot 49," so, accessible, but batshit crazy) mixed with a really warped kind of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain tossed in. The story centers around the Midwest and traveling up and down the Mississippi River on small river boats, trying to avoid capture by Scythians or Empire soldiers, etc. Both of these aspects felt like good things, I might add. I'm aware that one can read into that as being a criticism, but it felt alright.
Another interesting aspect of the story was the complete lack of explanation for ANYTHING that was happening -- who are the Scythians? Where did they come from? Who is the Empire? What's the deal with this wasp plague? Why does everyone just go with this massive change as if nothing was happening? How does a city become built with 60-story skyscrapers from castle-stone with a system of draw-bridges linking buildings, in less than 6 months? What?!? I actually kind of liked this lack of explanation -- the author obviously had some guts to go at this in this way.
My one complaint ... St. Louis, Missouri should just never be referred to as "Lou". Uggh. I cringed every time I read this as a reference to St. Louis. It seriously felt like an uncool parent trying to use the kids' slang, but totally screwing it up because "Lou" isn't something anyone from St. Louis would say. Just had to say it, being from St. Louis, it's not "Lou", "The Lou", "Louie", "St. Louie" (like in the movie, NO). Thatisall.
Thanks, Mr. DeNiro, for coming into Left Bank Books and giving me a copy to read ... a St. Louis post-apocalyptic book, who'd have thought?!