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15th out of 44 books
—
17 voters
The Sky Conducting
by
Michael J. Seidlinger (Goodreads Author)
Fiction. America died while no one was looking. All that remains is the skeleton of a land riddled with demise and what had once been referred to as domestic symmetry: those commodities we once called our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors."Michael Seidlinger's terrific new novel pruned my skin. Seriously, I was reading it in the bathtub one night and I stayed in the w...more
Paperback, First edition, 306 pages
Published
March 1st 2012
by Civil Coping Mechanisms
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Wear a neck brace, because Seidlinger's "Sky Conducting" is going to give you the most fascinating case of whiplash you'll ever have.
The text reads like a transcript from a time capsule — like a fragmented HAL 3000 — that had been recovered from an old hard drive. Viewed through an anthropological lens, Seidlinger's spare tale of an American family caught in the aftermath of a sociocultural collapse, each member representing a perfect specimen, holds a mirror to a culture which once prized char...more
The text reads like a transcript from a time capsule — like a fragmented HAL 3000 — that had been recovered from an old hard drive. Viewed through an anthropological lens, Seidlinger's spare tale of an American family caught in the aftermath of a sociocultural collapse, each member representing a perfect specimen, holds a mirror to a culture which once prized char...more
This review is sheer bias.
Like a book-end, it's bias, sheer bias.
The only books worth propping up are the ones that ring true. Since I wrote this, I guess it SHOULD ring true, right?
Yeah, this review is bias. Sheer fucking bias.
But everyone else be honest, and I hope the verdict doesn't hurt my feelings.
Like a book-end, it's bias, sheer bias.
The only books worth propping up are the ones that ring true. Since I wrote this, I guess it SHOULD ring true, right?
Yeah, this review is bias. Sheer fucking bias.
But everyone else be honest, and I hope the verdict doesn't hurt my feelings.
this book is sublime. i read it today in one sitting and thought about abandoned cars within a field of ash that used to be a city.
It starts with a warning of sorts. A breathing exercise to be undertaken while reading. It’s fairly simple. Inhale, read paragraph. Exhale. Inhale and read next paragraph etc. Thankfully the paragraphs are short. Scarily short. Like final statements. Each paragraph interrupted by a Rorschach-like blob, an indecipherable motif.
America is dead. The victim of a merciless and pointless heart attack. One family, it seems, has survived to wander through a blasted land.
2012, it seems, was The Year Of...more
America is dead. The victim of a merciless and pointless heart attack. One family, it seems, has survived to wander through a blasted land.
2012, it seems, was The Year Of...more
I was sitting at a bar with a friend and when I went out to smoke he looked at my copy of The Sky Conducting. When I came back in he said, "There are a lot of good lines in this." I agreed. The book is formed from one-sentence paragraphs that pile on top of each other, much like you might see in Nietszche, Wittgenstein, Noah Cicero, or Sam Pink, but that isn't to say this wasn't a truly unique and impressive book.
It begins with instructions about how to read the books, which consists of several...more
It begins with instructions about how to read the books, which consists of several...more
I'm a huge fan of dystopian/apocalyptic novels, mainly because--if crafted by good authors--they've shown an elegantly-weaved prescience into a gloomy and near future we've recklessly created ourselves FOR ourselves.
Michael's book presents us with an America not too far destined; a country on the down slope of an empirical, majestic, and dirty decline, where all systems (social, familial, and otherwise) have failed. The America we find in The Sky Conducting has passed judgement on and eviscerate...more
Michael's book presents us with an America not too far destined; a country on the down slope of an empirical, majestic, and dirty decline, where all systems (social, familial, and otherwise) have failed. The America we find in The Sky Conducting has passed judgement on and eviscerate...more
For this review I didn’t write marginalia. I didn’t want to weigh the book down. The book already supported enough weight on its own, a remarkable feat considering it didn’t use many words. Must be a question of design: it felt as if when I wanted to move on to the next page I was moving on to the next page. This book has little to no drag, either that or a lot of empathy.
Full review here: http://theopenend.com/2012/07/17/book...
Full review here: http://theopenend.com/2012/07/17/book...
Michael J. Seidlinger's 3rd novel "The Sky Conducting" is an engrossing and engaging read, pulling the reader in as you devour, and are in turn, devoured. The story follows a family after the events of a post-apocalyptic collapse of society. The beast known as America has died, and all that is left are the remnants of a world being forgotten. Clouds of ash reign in the sky, and all that was is burned, erased, forgotten in time. The nuclear family of four are lost within the ideal home of suburbi...more
We are all a part of something greater, and the struggle of human kind is to find a way to feel whole, to find fulfillment, but we, people, falter in that struggle, in so many ways. Michael J. Seidlinger recognizes that and demonstrates real humanity through the objective eyes of the clouds in The Sky Conducting. It is the could-be story of me, you, anybody. It is the story of the corners we back ourselves into, and never seem to see the cycle of our own behaviors, but Seidlinger does and he tel...more
The apocalypse, the end of a nation, and shopping malls are masterfully explored in this brilliant journey that explores the American dream and the nuclear family. This book will make you reexamine every value and belief you take for granted. It’s a quick read, addictively provocative. There’s a wonderful cast including an unnamed daughter and father, and a mercenary who is going to help ‘save’ the family. Some of my favorite lines include:
“It wasn’t surprising to note that everything that died...more
“It wasn’t surprising to note that everything that died...more
2 likes · like · see review
This book is as impressive in its inventive approach to form as it is in the propelling force within the lines and the chill of its insights. Highly readable, I felt myself driven (though not roughly forced) from line to line. I've never seen post apocalyptic fiction quite like it, but I'd like to see more. America may not really be dead, at least I hope not, but if it ever dies one would not be amiss to look at this book to understand. It just feels right.
Dug the hell out of this book and wrote a review for Necessary Fiction that invokes Bad Religion, Platoon, and more: http://necessaryfiction.com/reviews/T...
interview forthcoming at Monkeybicycle
Seidlinger weaves a web of post-apocalypse, though it is also more than that, because while there are so many ways the world can end, this is different, it is rumination by way of commentary, and it is not the end of the world as much as the death of America, hollowed-out by consumerism and misplaced direction.
More - http://bentanzer.blogspot.com/2012/04...
More - http://bentanzer.blogspot.com/2012/04...
The Sky Conducting takes place in a desolate stand-in for a society that used to be. The setting is vast and empty, but the story is exactly opposite. Seidlinger's short, powerful prose takes America's wasteland and builds a world that is new, important and beautiful.
This review is coming out somewhere soon, I believe.
May 24, 2013
Esther
marked it as to-read
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“After all the talk about the end of the world the irony was that it actually happened.”
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3 people liked it
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Nov 15, 2012 10:58am