book data
26 ratings, 3.58 average rating, 5 reviews
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published
July 12th 1997
by Random House Value Publishing
binding
Hardcover
isbn
0517178516
(isbn13: 9780517178515)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 41)
Read in April, 2008
I started reading this book as part of my recent obsession with Centralia, Pennsylvania. This is a small town that has been home to underground burning coal mines since 1962. Much of the town has been bought out and bulldozed by the government. Oh, this is the nonfiction right here. It is stranger, indeed, than the fiction.
Secondarily, I read this book because it is the work of a trans lady, and it is not about transsexuals! Sometimes transsexuals can write about things that don't have anyt...more
Secondarily, I read this book because it is the work of a trans lady, and it is not about transsexuals! Sometimes transsexuals can write about things that don't have anyt...more
Read in November, 2007
A fast read. The plot is almost too clever at times and I often felt like I knew where it was going long before it got there. The author managed to surprise me a few times though. The characters while definitely "quirky" weren't limited or defined by their quirks. Some went deeper than others but they all felt alive and I can see why he wrote a sequel for a few.
Not sure about the whole planets theme and the structure is supposedly based around some piece of music I don't know so...more
Not sure about the whole planets theme and the structure is supposedly based around some piece of music I don't know so...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
those who appreciate the absurd
A wild and wacky romp through a small town in Pennsylvania. The characters are an odd bunch of misfits, including a police officer in a wizards cape, an ex-con known as "The Outcast" who has a penchant for holding up hardware stores on donkey-back, a legal secretary who dislikes wearing clothes, and a batty old woman living in an abandoned school.
Boylan writes well. If you like the off beat, you will enjoy this book.
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Read in July, 2003
This is one of those novels where no coincidence is too extreme, where characters from one chapter drop in out of the blue (literally) in the next, and where time has a wonderful elasticity that brings random events together in a sort of cosmic interrelatedness that suggests the movement of the planets. Out of print.
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set in the always fascinating centralia! plus they make some trips to reading (where else are they going to go??)! reppin berks county fo life! 610 holla!
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