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Sep 10, 2011

Mariel rated it:

Book, with constant boredom. Answers, with no questions. Questions, with no answers on the tips of tongues or inside cheeks (maybe ass cheeks). Music, with no tone. Gun, with no bullets. Who signed off on the license? Déjà vu that reminds of nothing. Is that the appeal of genres to remind of nothing and feel the welcoming coma with dreams that someone else plants there and you wake up before you can see anyone's faces? The eye from that book, the nose from this... "Make me look beautiful!" More...

11 comments like (20 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2008

Rob rated it:

In Gun, With Occasional Music, Jonathan Lethem gives us science fiction's worthy successor to Raymond Chandler. Though this is the easy take-home message from nearly every quoted newspaper columnist, book jacket blurb, and miscellaneous reviewer -- they also all happen to be right. Even a cursory familiarity with Chandler's pulp noir will ring through with startling clarity to readers of this novel. The cadence of the narrative, the hard-boiled dialogue, the archetypal characters... Lethem's More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2007

Andrew rated it:

Excellent. His style is as cold as Hammett's, and the moral core as strong as Chandler's. And any book that says both "In Los Angeles it's illegal to know what you do for a living" and "Tell him next time he wants to talk to me, don't send a marsupial" should be in everyone's library.

This character develops, is one thing somewhat new: he loses his early self-consciousness about his metaphors, and eventually solidifies enough to end a chapter with the brilliant l More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Punk rated it:

Sci-fi noir detective story. It's Blade Runner meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and exactly as goofy and dark as that sounds.

Conrad Metcalf is our narrator, a Private Inquisitor in a world where direct questions are considered rude and question marks are flashy punctuation. The story's filled with products of evolution therapy: talking kittens and mobster kangaroos, plus the mysterious babyheads -- toddlers with advanced intelligence that hang out in babyhead bars and babble their baby More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2008

Mandapants rated it:

"Gun, with Occasional Music" is the best kind of science fiction- you barely know it's science fiction at all. Every aspect of the world Lethem has created is in service of the plot, even the bits that seem overly goofy or derivative at first, not the other way around.

The story is a slab of thick noir starring the every-P.I. Metcaff. Letham casts the heavy as an evolved kangaroo, and his world also features 3-foot tall evolved babies. While this could come off as "Disne More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Jason rated it:

5 stars for me

I sat down with my old trustee Sony reader, ready to break dawn with the start of a new book. A new weird detective noir novel, think Dick Tracy set in an alt future. You have guns and bad guys, some music too, but you also have drugs galore and a cast that consists of a talking sheep, a crotchedy old detective ape, some evolved kitties and babies and a strong armed, short tempered kangaroo named Joey Castle. It is a murder mystery that is told in the first person by our More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2009

Richard rated it:

This is a fun and quick read. But in the days after I finished it, I found that my impression took a bit of a dip as I pondered it, and it lost its four-star rating in the process.

But first, a curiosity: this is the second off-beat mystery novel set in Oakland that I've read recently. The other one, Swing: A Mystery by Rupert Holmes, isn't SciFi at all, but also involves a musical theme which is even more central to the plot.

As the blurb and other reviews have remarked, G More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2008

Osho rated it:

It has a kangaroo walking into a bar, see? What's not to like? This was Lethem's first novel and it's just as confident and sharp as the rest. A dystopian noir detective novel of the future, Gun, with Occasional Music hits its tone well and sustains it evenly throughout. Some detail (including the occasional music of the title) is not as well-developed as I'd have liked. The plot develops in the Fahrenheit 451-A Scanner Darkly range, plus the expected Chandler-Hammett twists and complications. T More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2007

Mona rated it:

Okay... so it's science fiction mystery detective noir. Not much competition in that genre. But it manages to be good on all levels, as well as thrilling, funny, gripping, sad, thought-provoking, bittersweet and insane.

I admit I love Lethem's use of the language to invent a near future that is, weird as it is, not unimaginable. The novel's ambience is perfect and the characters are sympathetic and real (even the evolutionarily-accelerated talking animals) and the plot compelling. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 12, 2008

Raegan rated it:

Wildly over-praised sci fi detective novel set in a surreal future where animals have been "evolved" to fill servile functions and everyone is addicted to their special blend of designer drug. I wasn't very impressed, especially after reading the fawning reviews from major critics. This isn't nearly as enjoyable as Mike McQuay's series of Mathew Swain sci fi detective novels. Lethem should leave the pulp writing to less pretentious authors and go have cocktails with his synchophant eas More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 11, 2011

Tony rated it:

Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" is a marvelous book so I approached this, his first novel, with some enthusiasm, which is perhaps why I finished with some sense of disappointment. Okay, it was his first book. His quirky sensibility is abundant here, but he apparently needed to learn when to rein that in. This is basically a private-detective novel, set in Oakland, California, written with an obvious tip of the hat to Chandler and Hammett et al-- but the twist is that it takes place in More...

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Aug 15, 2011

Craig rated it:

I wanted to like this book, I really did. A nice little mixture of the standard down-on-his-luck detective story and the dystopian science fiction future setting, with some humor mixed in - what's not to like, right? Sadly, it turns out there isn't much I can say for it. Lethem gives us this cobbled-together society with evolved animals, "evolved" babies, this wonderful mixture of government-issue chemicals that pretty much everyone imbibes with regularity, and a karma-tracking syst More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Kristina rated it:

I honestly can't figure out how I feel about this, or how to discuss it intelligently. I feel like there is a ton of stuff to analyze and break down here, but I'm not writing a book report so I won't. In terms of entertainment value, I guess there were some aspects I really liked and found very clever, and some things that impressed me less. I know for sure that I would have liked to learn more about the babyheads, and what the hell was the deal with them, and a little less about the "make, More...

0 comments like

Dec 31, 2010

Jason rated it:

Yes, there is a quote that starts this book off by Raymond Chandler, and yes, it is written in that hard-boiled detective style, and yes it is set in the future and deals with individuality and choice, which brings up all of the Dick references, but this is a book that more than anything is channeling the lovechild of Huxley and Orwell.

Set in a future that is not entirely dissimilar to the fifties, it is populated with evolved animals and sarcastic, whiskey drinking babies and everyon More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2010

Abby rated it:

It's hard to believe that this was Lethem's first novel -- his voice is already so assured, yet entirely different than his more recent, less fantastic works. It's also clear that he had a knack for naming characters from day one -- my favorite is Walter Surface, an old-school private eye of the most untraditional kind.

Everyone describes this book as Raymond Chandler meets Phillip K. Dick and that's absolutely true -- except the future is even bleaker in Lethem's vision than Dick's. More...

0 comments like

May 03, 2010

Mike rated it:

Having greatly enjoyed Motherless Brooklyn I read this Lethem book, his first, with a little concern. Usually first books by authors are not their best, especially when they are only dug up later after the author has been noticed for another work. However I can happily say that Gun with Occasional Music is well worth the time of anyone who loves Noir fiction.

In short, the book is a mash up of dystopian and crime fiction. It follows a classic Raymond Chandler type detective charact More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2009

Patrick rated it:

I like Lethem---He is a friend of the science fiction genre, despite writing mostly about other subjects. This particular work is a detective story set in a dystopian future, which, the details for me were more interesting than the plot. Without giving too much away, in the future, you have to have a license (unless you are state employed) in order to ask people questions, and everyone is hooked on drugs, which is completely legal, and in fact encouraged by the state. Animals have also been " More...

0 comments like

Apr 19, 2009

Brendan rated it:

I reread Lethem’s dark tech-noir mystery novel in preparation for my mystery reading group’s discussion of it. I was a bit worried because it wasn’t the usual fare we read for that group, but I feel like that’s my role: to recommend stuff we wouldn’t usually read (I’ve also had us read City of Glass and The Big Over Easy). The discussion went pretty well, though several of the regulars either missed the meeting or hadn’t finished the book. Those who had finished seemed to like it pretty well, More...

0 comments like

Jan 11, 2012

zxvasdf rated it:

I'm not really into hardboiled reads, but I love love the imagery within of some harsh dude, probably holding a cigarette and contemplating a bottle of scotch stashed in a drawer, feet laid up on a desk next to a phone that has known almost no use.

Lethem, artist of genrebending, delivers a funny read that is also smooth down the cranial gullet. Like that good scotch stashed in the drawer. What little noir I've read harks from Ross H. Spencer whom I believe to be the funniest noir dete More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2011

Ben rated it:

Dystopian noir science fiction. Need I say more?

Probably not, but I will, because that's just who I am. While the concept of this book is incredible (as are the characters, the plot generally, the world he creates, and the writing itself), I found myself slightly disappointed with the end. It's pretty quick, and feels a bit rushed--or, at the same time, it feels like he tried to stretch it out too far, which only makes sense once you've read the book. Otherwise, though, this is an inc More...

0 comments like

Aug 15, 2011

Jonny rated it:

Jonathan Lethem's first novel is a private dick detective story set in a futuristic world where animals can be scientifically evolved into more human form, asking questions had been outlawed except by licensed professionals, and everyone is addicted to their own personal blend of wonder drugs supplied to them for free by the government--literally the opiate of the masses.

Our hero here is Conrad Metcalf, a rough and tumble Private Inquisitor who is stuck with the genital nerve endings More...

0 comments like

Dec 27, 2008

Maureen rated it:

somebody lent me this book because they know i love my noir, and the book pays off in that regard but the notion that this is science fiction or a successor to pkd is confusing to me -- the world lethem introduces us to has drugs coming out the wazoo, and there are evolved animals yes, but really? that all seems window dressing, a spin on what is primarily a detective story. lots of what i would consider the speculative elements don't actually seem to go anywhere -- why is text outlawed? what's More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2011

Rita rated it:

One-third Raymond Chandler, one-third biopunk, one third Disney on crack. I don't really know how else to explain it.

There's a Marlowe-esque protagonist and enough weird incidental shit like kangaroos with guns that you never get bored. The worldbuilding is a bit shallow, though. There's stuff like widespread, government-approved drug use and an underclass of talking "evolved" animals, all of which is meant to make a statement about corruption, social control, and personal ag More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 24, 2011

Lea rated it:

Sci fi, maybe? Definitely noir. This is one of the most unusual and interesting books I've read . . . maybe ever. The only thing that comes close are the bizarro titles I've read this year, but this has the extra bonus of being three times the length of most of those books.

Conrad Metcalf, PI (Private Inquisitor), lives in a world where conversation is frowned upon, and asking questions is permitted only by professional Inquisitors. Everyone functions by using drugs (Forgettol, Ac More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Meika rated it:

This was a quick and intriguing read, though I can't say if I would've finished it if there hadn't been someone waiting for my copy.
The Noir plot was pretty straightforward, with a nice twist of irony waiting at the end, and Lethem makes good use of a time-warp to solve a number of the usual, sticky plot snags. I also thought the better-living-through-chemistry commentary was well done. It didn't have the stink of public service announcements... and what would a Noir detective protagon More...

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2012

Tom rated it:

I really wanted to give this book 3 and 1/2 stars. Really.
So for now I'm wedging it into the 3 star mark.

I'll be a bag of jerk here and start with the main gripes. First off, I felt very little for the characters. Conrad Metcalf is the personification of every hard-boiled detective ever. Every other character is summed up by Metcalf in a couple of sentences during interrogations, and that's about it. The issue here is that there's too many damn characters, which brings me to th More...

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Feb 20, 2011

Daveski rated it:

Lots of people much smarter than I am have already described this book as a combination of Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick, but there's really no more accurate way of describing this novel. The main character is Philip Marlowe in every way (except for the name, of course... and the drug addiction I guess). The style and structure are very consciously in the style of Chandler, but everything else is reminiscent of PKD mostly because Lethem himself is generally reminiscent of him, not becaus More...

0 comments like

Jun 17, 2011

Dani rated it:

I liked a lot about this book. Lethem was very clever. I'm not the biggest fan of hard-boiled fiction because it's usually either too predictable, or everything is withheld from the reader so that the main character could have a Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple-like monologue at the end explaining all the painfully boring and forgotten about details... This books was so... DIFFERENT... I never could have guessed what was going to happen and I like the way that Lethem pulled it off. The quirky voic More...

4 comments like

Apr 02, 2011

Brian rated it:

In an alternate Oakland where your life is only worth the amount of karma on your official card and you're just as likely to be mugged by an evolved kangaroo or a "babyhead" (think an entire subclass of people like Baby Herman from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"), a rube hires a grizzled PI to find out who murdered the guy he's accused of killing. The PI (private inquisitor) runs afoul of a local crime lord and his former colleagues at "the office" where he used to be an More...

0 comments like

Dec 04, 2009

Colin rated it:

Jonathan Lethem’s first novel, Gun, With Occasional Music, may not be the Magnum opus that gave him fame and credibility, but it sure is entertaining.

Conrad Metcalf is a P.I. in a land where only certain people are allowed to ask questions, so when a man comes to him claiming to be framed for murder, he lets his curiosity get the best of him and starts unraveling a cover-up better left untouched. Blending a hard-boiled detective story with science fiction, Lethem’s futuristic Califor More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)