Anna Karenina left her husband for a dashing officer. Lady Chatterley left hers for the gamekeeper. Now A... read full description
reviews
Aug 15, 2008
Conrad
rated it: 
There was a ten- or twenty-year period when literary fiction writers started to pay a lot of attention to science writing: Stoppard read Gleick's Chaos and wrote Arcadia; Richard Powers boned up on his Turing and wrote Galatea 2.2; and so on. This was well after the seventy-five-year drought that was modernism. (You can search Eliot's writing for days, trying in vain to find a single reference to the scientific upheavals of his time that isn't derisive, mystical, or silly.)
The probl More...
The probl More...
12 comments
like
(10 people liked it)
Jun 29, 2010
MJ
rated it: 
Very clever central conceit – a man loses his lover to a black hole of nothingness – executed stylishly. Lethem has enough tricks up his sleeve to maintain the tongue-in-cheek blend of love story and scientific wankery.
We could have done without the academic frat party scene (a professor of literature taking her shirt off? Really?) and some of the Lethemisms sprinkled hither and yon, but on the whole, the cleverness swoops in and saves the day. Nice work, J.
We could have done without the academic frat party scene (a professor of literature taking her shirt off? Really?) and some of the Lethemisms sprinkled hither and yon, but on the whole, the cleverness swoops in and saves the day. Nice work, J.
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Cait
rated it:
This was a thoroughly good novel. As irritated as pseudoscience usually makes me, Lethem did a good job of not taking it seriously enough for me to want to strangle him. Plus some of it was kind of cool - the idea of using nerve-blind people as a unique kind of observer, for example. I wish the book had broken my heart more, but I suppose it's meant to be more funny than heartbreaking.
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jun 19, 2009
Misha
rated it: 
I like this bit: "Talk was hopeless. We smiled apologetically, while our words went spilling like platefuls of barbecue sauce onto a white dress in a detergent ad, comical slow-motion disaster."
This book is entertaining. I am entertained.
But, seriously, dialogue tags. My kingdom for some dialogue tags. Just the occasional "Alice said" so I know who's speaking, especially if there are more than two people in the scene, e.g., the barbershop in Chapter 6. More...
This book is entertaining. I am entertained.
But, seriously, dialogue tags. My kingdom for some dialogue tags. Just the occasional "Alice said" so I know who's speaking, especially if there are more than two people in the scene, e.g., the barbershop in Chapter 6. More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
May 29, 2008
Crystal
rated it:
Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across the Table is two books in one: a parable about love and obsession, and a sharp satire of academia. It is narrated by Phillip Engstrand, a sociology professor who talks entirely too much. Phillip tells us the story of Lack, a hole in the universe opened by an accident of physics, and of the various academics who find themselves drawn in by it (pun probably intended).
Phillip's lover, Alice, is one such academic. She is a particle physicist who More...
Phillip's lover, Alice, is one such academic. She is a particle physicist who More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Aug 01, 2008
David
rated it:
I'm not one of those people who read every book by my favorite authors, although I probably should. Having loved both 'Motherless Brooklyn' and 'Fortress of Solitude' (and I seriously mean loved), I really couldn't resist this post-modern love story with Lethem's attendant literary trickery.
The story is a bizarre love triangle, with the twist that the third side is represented by a curious cosmological entity named only "Lack." Tongue in cheek existential feminism, anyone? More...
The story is a bizarre love triangle, with the twist that the third side is represented by a curious cosmological entity named only "Lack." Tongue in cheek existential feminism, anyone? More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 22, 2009
Annie
rated it:
awesome. academia novel, with strange post-human elements and an anti-critical tone. and a void called Lack that is at one point likened to a vagina, and a gynecologist who calls himself a vagina ecologist.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
York
rated it:
Ésta es hasta el momento mi novela del año.
Me llegó como un regalo absolutamente inesperado luego de años buscándola. Una novela corta o un cuento largo. Las primeras páginas son casi incomprensibles, incluso para aquellos clavados en gatos de Schrödinger y teorías de universos paralelos. Luego entiendes el movimiento de Lethem para convertir la historia de Alice es una historia que va entre una fábula sci-fi y una parábola geek, sobre el amor, la necesidad y sentido del afecto, sobre More...
Me llegó como un regalo absolutamente inesperado luego de años buscándola. Una novela corta o un cuento largo. Las primeras páginas son casi incomprensibles, incluso para aquellos clavados en gatos de Schrödinger y teorías de universos paralelos. Luego entiendes el movimiento de Lethem para convertir la historia de Alice es una historia que va entre una fábula sci-fi y una parábola geek, sobre el amor, la necesidad y sentido del afecto, sobre More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 04, 2012
Jason
rated it:
Every year should be begun with a novel by Jonathan Lethem. He is what would happen if Philip Dick and Italo Calvino had a bizarro world love child, or if Kevin Brockmeir could write solid endings. The basic conceit, that of a love gone wrong when the woman, a particle physicist, falls in love with Lack, a nothingness in a lab and her interdisciplinary academic boyfriend attempts to win her back slash make meaning of this whole incident. It all turns into goop in the end, which worked surprising
More...
Nov 05, 2011
Rita
rated it:
Recommended for English major types only.
This is a "literary" novel that borrows from science fiction, rather than the other way around. (You get sentences like, "the lack was obviously an explosion of metaphor into a literal world," and, "We want to treat Lack as a self-contained text. A sign. We want to read him …") Which isn't a criticism or a particular selling point (I love both), more of warning: you have to read it according to the right genre con More...
This is a "literary" novel that borrows from science fiction, rather than the other way around. (You get sentences like, "the lack was obviously an explosion of metaphor into a literal world," and, "We want to treat Lack as a self-contained text. A sign. We want to read him …") Which isn't a criticism or a particular selling point (I love both), more of warning: you have to read it according to the right genre con More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 23, 2011
Megan
rated it:
Philip and Alice's relationship falls apart when Alice falls in love with the void of nothingness that her university physics department has created. And the story is mostly about that, and about the flippant game of academia, which sounds like it should be fun, but overall, this short read left me feeling unbothered.
Hopeless lovesickness. That's basically the tone that pervades most of the book, and it's a really good and immediate portrayal of that emotion, but it still left me col More...
Hopeless lovesickness. That's basically the tone that pervades most of the book, and it's a really good and immediate portrayal of that emotion, but it still left me col More...
Aug 02, 2010
Blue
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Dec 02, 2010
Tina
rated it: 
This book was great! It was a compelling love story that tread the line between science and science-fiction marvelously. Philip's devotion to Alice was neither pathetic or melodramatic; he acted quite realistically for someone who is confused about were his relationship stands. I loved how Lack was anthropomorphic to the point of becoming a near character - more so by what he didn't do than what he did. The book had its moments of comedy as well as intellect - De Tooth and the deconstructionists
More...
Sep 20, 2009
Noah
rated it:
While I really liked many of the philosophical and scientific concepts talked about here, and the idea of a woman falling in love with a time/space event, in the end, there just wasn't enough here for me to call it a good book. The two biggest problems, are the main character and the ending. The main character is kind of a whiny, pathetic, dick most of the time and it's really hard to care about, and get behind his feelings after a while. As for the ending, well, I knew it would be very open end
More...
Nov 03, 2011
Lisabet
rated it:
Every book I read by Jonathan Lethem is different. The only things they have in common are their originality and the author's wonderful command of ideas - not to mention his ability to express them. This tale is no exception.
Philip is an anthropology professor, in love and living with young physics professor Alice. A ground-breaking experiment in the particle accelerator creates a void, a door into an alternative reality that people begin to call Lack. In experiments, the physicists More...
Philip is an anthropology professor, in love and living with young physics professor Alice. A ground-breaking experiment in the particle accelerator creates a void, a door into an alternative reality that people begin to call Lack. In experiments, the physicists More...
Mar 08, 2009
Tim
rated it:
I lack (ah har har) the words to describe how fantastic this is.
The plot of a possibly intelligent empty space is interesting enough. The fabulous wordplay and writing is delightful. But best of all, it is a sweet, adorable story of a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a spacial anomoly.
The plot of a possibly intelligent empty space is interesting enough. The fabulous wordplay and writing is delightful. But best of all, it is a sweet, adorable story of a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a spacial anomoly.
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 10, 2011
Bandit
rated it:
Every so often I take breaks from horror, less so now, but still...and Lethem is such a talented writer, I thought I'd check this book out. Great premise behind this unusual love triangle between man/woman/psychics experiment and exceptional writing, but it fell a bit flat for me, because the characters were not really likeable, they were compelling enough and quirky and odd and perfectly fitted within the story, but not the kind of characters your heart breaks for, if that makes sense. Just a b
More...
Jan 11, 2011
boots
rated it:
First I gotta say Mr. Lethem: this book is definitely up there for one of the worst book titles ever. Yeesh. I don't know what I would have called this book, but definitely not that.
Now that that's out of the way...
Although the book is not very long (I'd say it reads like some kind of long Twilight Zone episode with the kicker at the end), it is just long enough, and that's sayin' something. : ) If you haven't read the blurb: Our protagonist, an interdisciplinary humanities-e More...
Now that that's out of the way...
Although the book is not very long (I'd say it reads like some kind of long Twilight Zone episode with the kicker at the end), it is just long enough, and that's sayin' something. : ) If you haven't read the blurb: Our protagonist, an interdisciplinary humanities-e More...
Oct 23, 2009
Ben
rated it:
Lethem's love affair with science fiction is fascinating. While he has never quite returned to his full-on, genre enmeshed works since Gun, With Occasional Music, many of his books seem to have a slight science fiction flavor that allows for a different view of his characters.
As She Climbed Across the Table was recommended as his best novel in this vein. That title is well-earned, but Fortress of Solitude remains my favorite and, in my opinion, his best work.
Where Lethem' More...
As She Climbed Across the Table was recommended as his best novel in this vein. That title is well-earned, but Fortress of Solitude remains my favorite and, in my opinion, his best work.
Where Lethem' More...
Aug 09, 2009
Cari
rated it: 
I bought this book on a whim, when I saw that Lethem was the author (I loved "Motherless Brooklyn") and it was on sale. I read it quickly (it's short) but I found the characters fairly uninteresting. The book's plot is intriguing (a woman falls in love with her physics experiment; her boyfriend struggles to hold his own), but the ending left me cold (which perhaps it was supposed to) and the physics talk - whether real or made up, I wouldn't know - was not particularly fun to read ei
More...
Aug 03, 2009
Sylvia
rated it:
This is a must-read book. Si algo caracteriza a Lethem (en el mundo de sylvia) es el humor, el sutil humor con que se maneja. Un habilidoso de la narrativa, con diálogos que lo hacen que uno suelte una carcajada y todo mundo te mire dentro del carro, en tu oficina o en el consultorio del dentista.
En esta novela hay experimentos que se llaman Ausencia y que deciden que se tragan y qué no, hay dos ciegos que cuentan cabinas telefónicas para llegar a un lugar y checan su reloj (braille More...
En esta novela hay experimentos que se llaman Ausencia y que deciden que se tragan y qué no, hay dos ciegos que cuentan cabinas telefónicas para llegar a un lugar y checan su reloj (braille More...
Nov 06, 2010
Jennyappleseed
rated it:
Lethem uses physics as a literary device without it turning into a gimmick, and his science enlightens the story rather than unnecessarily complicating it. Phillip and Alice seem unwholesome as a couple, but the dynamic of the two blind characters, which also seems destructive at first, eventually mirrors their relationship and confronts the issues of need, trust, self-loathing, insecurity, isolation, and communication.
This book also has a momentum which carried me through without eve More...
This book also has a momentum which carried me through without eve More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 01, 2008
Jesse
rated it:
So far, just one chapter into it, I'm pretty disappointed. The narrator is apparently some kind of science professor and really sounds like a twit. But then, I almost never enjoy novels set in the world of academia.
Update: Gave up maybe 50 pages in. Maybe it gets better but I can't stand the protagonist and have no reason to care for anyone else. The parallel universe/void thing might have proved interesting, but some bullshit in the first chapter about wanting to "map his love More...
Update: Gave up maybe 50 pages in. Maybe it gets better but I can't stand the protagonist and have no reason to care for anyone else. The parallel universe/void thing might have proved interesting, but some bullshit in the first chapter about wanting to "map his love More...
Nov 06, 2009
Eric
rated it:
This was a fun little book, especially after all of the 500-plus page monsters I've been reading lately. I picked it up because the idea of a science-based novel appealed to me, but that's not really what this is - it's more of a parody of university life, played out through the main character's love of a colleague, and of all the other university-types that populate the book. It's quite funny, interspersed with some pretty thought-provoking philosophy and discussion of love and possession. A
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 01, 2011
Sandy
rated it:
Quirky story.... is it physics or sci fi? or is just an odd, often silly, sometimes annoying, story of a jerk of a guy who loses his girl to a physics experiment.... to a 'black hole' of sorts.... to a parallel universe.... And is she, supposedly a physicist, actually in love with this void, dubbed "Lack", or is he- the narrator boyfriend - totally wrong.... an idea which he never explores so the book lacks - to steal an expression from it - any characters one could take seriously - t
More...
May 12, 2008
Christina
rated it:
Way too "high concept" for my taste. The premise is inventive and intriguing, but overall I didn't care enough about the characters to feel invested in whatever happens to them. The story is that a physicist's experiment creates something new -- a new universe, a black hole, no one is really sure. They call it "Lack" and its only characteristics are that it accepts and rejects certain objects, with no discernable pattern. A female physicist gets obsessed with Lack to the
More...
Jan 01, 2010
Nate
rated it:
A quick two-day break from Ulysses because I didn't want to lug it around by bike last Monday, and was way too underslept for Joyce today.
As She Climbed Across the Table is the most and least science-ish of the early quartet of Lethem science fiction novels before he redefined himself with Motherless Brooklyn. Most in that the plot derives from a university physics experiment, and least in that beyond being the catalyst, the science is pretty thin. Either way, it rarely feels like g More...
As She Climbed Across the Table is the most and least science-ish of the early quartet of Lethem science fiction novels before he redefined himself with Motherless Brooklyn. Most in that the plot derives from a university physics experiment, and least in that beyond being the catalyst, the science is pretty thin. Either way, it rarely feels like g More...
Feb 19, 2008
Gabrielle
rated it:
Philip's girlfriend, Alice, is a physicist working with Professor Soft who creates a parallel universe in a lab. But the new universe will not detach and become independent. Something is missing.It remains a vacuum. Alice becomes obsessed with finding out what might be amiss. She names the vacuum Lack, and begins feeding it. Philip misses Alice; he wants to be with her but sees her slipping further away into the basement of the physics department.Soon she admits that she has fallen in love with
More...
Sep 29, 2010
Mariel
rated it:
My twin loathed As She Climbed Across The Table. We discussed her reasons why years ago and I can't recall how she put it (better than my swiss cheese in a rat trap memory ever could, no doubt. Y'know, there's holes. I miss the basics. Yeah, I suck at analogies). I'd ask her but she hates Lethem and gets mad whenever I try and get her to read Girl in Landscape.
I liked it because ultimately I understood that it was a nobody is getting what they need/want love relationship. Lethem got More...
I liked it because ultimately I understood that it was a nobody is getting what they need/want love relationship. Lethem got More...
2 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Aug 07, 2011
Robert
rated it:
A quirky little book about a woman physicist who falls in love with a sort of animated black hole named "Lack", told from the point of view of her jilted human lover. The whole book seemed to be a sort of over-extended metaphor, but what the metaphor represents is not entirely clear (the "Lack" of real substance + meaning in our modern lives? the seduction of abstractions on which we overlay our own illusions?). More of an an "interesting idea" book, than a engross
