Reviews for Gun, with Occasional Music

The average rating for Gun, with Occasional Music based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-26 00:00:00 Todd Eskes Zooming, fast-paced, hardboiled futuristic thriller with an edge that won’t say quits. Gun, with Occasional Music - a mix of Raymond Chandler Big Sleep and Philip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the first novel by Brooklyn born Jonathan Lethem published in 1994 when the author was age thirty. Oh, what some writers would give to have this man’s talent. The first-person narrator is a private eye by the name of Conrad Metcalf, a tough, handsome chap (what else?) who throw out wisecracks, pithy quips, sharp gibes and one-liners faster than a gangster kangaroo can dress him down as the low karma holding flathead he is. Say what – gangster kangaroo? Karma holding? Oh, yes, it all makes sense within the context of this highly provocative and engaging tale set in the San Francisco Bay Area. What a wild, wild ride. As soon as we begin reading, we are immediately pulled into the story since not only is this a murder mystery a la Chandler or Hammett but also science fiction a la PKD or Gibson, all set in a bizarre futuristic 21st century world revealed to readers piece by piece as we turn the pages. Too many shocking revelations for me to go on about plot, thus I’ll turn directly to several of the juicy bits: Conrad Metcalf - He’s what we nowadays call a Private Investigator but what this future society calls a Private Inquisitor. Conrad is a freewheeling, independently-minded future Philip Marlowe. Much of the fun comes on every page when Conrad thinks a somewhat cynical, usually humorous thought or voices his retort, gaff, query or take on the case. A few for instances: “Where did you study up on how to play the fall guy? You’re the punch line to everybody’s worst jokes.” – “I’m a comedian. Either of you guys want to play straight man, the part is still open.” – “I don’t possess an eidetic memory, but I had a picture of her knees - and the creamy inches of skin above them – burned into my consciousness from the brief flash as I walked in.” Colorful Characters – Remember Sydney Greenstreet playing Kasper Gutman in The Maltese Falcon? There’s a bad guy in this novel modeled on Hammett’s famous fat man. There’s also a dangerous dame modeled on Carmen Sternwood from The Big Sleep, not to mention a couple of hunks (a good guy and a bad guy) modeled on Moose Malloy from Farewell, My Lovely. Shameless stereotyping, you say? Sure, but for Jonathan Lethem’s overall literary aesthetic, such stereotyping works like a charm (no apologies for the cliché). Make - Powerful cocaine-like drug made available free-of-charge by the government. Nearly the entire population snorts lines of their favorite blend depending on the mindset desired. Several choice ingredients: Acceptal, Avoidall, Believeall, Regrettol, Forgettol. Sound eerie? It is unnerving, creepy and, depending on your values, even sinister. But according to the state, it is just the thing to keep society humming along to their tune. Conrad continually hankers after his own special blend but admits all the various fixings are icing on the cake since underneath it all is Addicttol. Inquisitors - The police. Conrad must deal with an entire batch of Inquisitors, usually two at a time. Among the force is knockout Catherine Teleprompter who can be tough as nails or as saucy and sassy as any femme fatale. Karma Cards; Karma Points - Citizens are required to carry cards noting their karma points (many karma points for people who follow society’s rules; few karma points for those who break the rules). Being a seeker of truth rather than a guy worried about social conventions or very questionable laws, it should come as no surprise Conrad is continually having his karma points reduced by the Inquisitors. Human-Like Animals - Most of the service jobs are performed by genetically engineered animals such as kittens or sheep (a doctor has a ewe as a housekeeper). One such animal playing a key role is Joey the Kangaroo. Here’s Conrad observing the kangaroo: “He was wearing a canvas jacket and plastic pants with a tight elastic waistband, and his paws were tucked into his pockets.” The inclusion of these talking evolved ones adds more than a little weirdness and creepiness to the tale but I must say, there’s something unique and fascinating about other animals sharing our human condition. Babyheads - Evolution engineering has toddlers speaking as adults. Many of these small ones (it appears they remain bald toddlers no matter what their age), run away from home and drink booze continually at baby bars such as the one on Telegraph Avenue. Oh, you babyhead: you're ghastly and fascinating at the same time. Deep Freeze and Slave Boxes - Don’t go against society or you could be put in deep freeze for years or have a slave box inserted in the back of your head to turn you into an obedient worker. Ouch! Dystopian in the extreme. Literature and the Arts - It appears television, drugs and the powers that be all but eliminated great literature and the high arts having any influence whatsoever in this future culture. I came away with a sad, sinking feeling thinking about the numbed-out, dullard-driven world Jonathan Lethem creates here. But Gun, With Occasional Music is a splendid novel. And with the inclusion of Conrad Metcalf and his philosophical reflections and wisecracks, both deeply thought-provoking and a fun read. Get yourself a copy and zoom off with Conrad. Thanks, Jonathan! One of the leading lights of American literature, Jonathan Lethem, born 1964. Photo taken when the author was hovering around 30, the age when he wrote Gun, With Occasional Music “Some people have things written all over their faces; the big guy had a couple of words misspelled in crayon on his.” ― Jonathan Lethem, Gun, With Occasional Music

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-21 00:00:00 John Lopez When down and out private inquisitor Conrad Metcalf's last client turns up dead, Metcalf takes up the case to find out who killed him. Can he find the killer before he runs out of karma and winds up in the deep freeze? If Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick spent an evening together doing hard drugs, this would be the book that would result. Lethem weaves together the sci-fi and noir elements together so tightly that an evolved kangaroo doesn't seem out of place after his first appearance. The world of Gun, with Occasional Music, is a bleak totalitarian version of a future California. A future where everyone carries cards noting how much karma they have. When you run out of karma, you wind up in deep freeze for a period of years. A scientist named Twostrand invented a process to create evolved bipedal animals out of ordinary ones like kittens, kangaroos and sheep. Eventually the process was tried on babies, creating the grotestque babyheads. Almost everyone is addicted to a free drug called make that's used to keep the populace under control. Interested yet? Metcalf's case is a pretty standard one but Lethem injects it with freshness. Metcalf is the prototypical noir private eye with a self-deprecating sense of humor. More than once, he congratulates himself on his use of metaphor. Gun, with Occasional Music, reminds me of the movie Hot Fuzz in that it's both a satire of noir and also one of the better 30's style noir novels I've read in recent memory, much like Hot Fuzz was for action movies. You wouldn't think that a book featuring a gun-toting kangaroo would be a good example of noir but the proof is in the pudding. I'd recommend Gun, with Occasional to fans of noir, bizarro, Philip K. Dick, and other strangeness.