Masters of Atlantis

Jan 26, 2013 David Peterson rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Cool people.

Recommended to David by: Tommy Nosewicz

The novel doesn't have a lot of action, and it isn't laugh-out-loud funny. It's consistenly amusing the whole way, though, and Portis shows in a very entertaining way how absurd secret societies like this one are. At the same time, though, he's not unkind, and the ending is so sweet, absurd, tragic, and, at the same time, uplifting, that I didn't know exactly what to feel, but I felt it a lot. It's an ending I'll never forget, and certainly one of my favorites of all time.

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Apr 01, 2011 Sherrie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm now 4/5 on the Portis-spree I've been on since December now - this Portis novel is definitely the funniest - something in his delivery of sly little jokes will certainly remind you of the Coen Brothers, Conan O'Brien AND the Simpsons all at once. I am pretty sure the guys who wrote the great Stonecutters Simpsons episode must have loved the heck out of this book about a Atlantean secret society called the Gnomons...that seems completely fradulent & imagined - and yet, completely real in...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Art Marroquin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of those books you don't want to end. Portis tells a story of some really ordinary people who think they have become privy to obscure secrets of the universe. What follows, as the author would say, are "displays of robust ignorance" that leave you chuckling, or laughing out loud. These guys (they're all men), for instance, have a plan to win WW II according to the principles of "gnomonism" that features "compressed air" and they mean to tell FDR about it. Why won't he listen? Put Vol...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Kate Woods Walker rated it 3 of 5 stars

After learning that Conan O'Brien recommended this book, I knew I had to read it. And, indeed, Charles Portis's Masters of Atlantis was laugh-out-loud funny just as promised.

It's a fine and lighthearted palate cleanser of a book. Portis, maybe unwittingly, shows just how far men in funny hats will go to prove they are set somewhere above women, children and commoners.

But it's choppy and disjointed, not much in the plot department. More a gathering-in of various comic scenes, with absurdity its...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Aaron Arnold rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, favorites, read-in-2011

What makes an American novel? What makes a great novel? And what makes the Great American Novel? Masters of Atlantis isn't the Great American Novel, that elusive white whale of navel-gazing twentieth century writers, but it is great, and, to judge by the jacket copy on every single one of his books, extremely American. I agree with that sentiment, although I really can't say why. Obviously the fact that it's set in America makes it American in some way, but I think what those reviewers are tryin...more What makes an American novel? What makes a great novel? And what makes the Great American Novel? Masters of Atlantis isn't the Great American Novel, that elusive white whale of navel-gazing twentieth century writers, but it is great, and, to judge by the jacket copy on every single one of his books, extremely American. I agree with that sentiment, although I really can't say why. Obviously the fact that it's set in America makes it American in some way, but I think what those reviewers are trying to get at is that there's something about the way Portis presents the events in his book that a foreigner just couldn't replicate. Since plenty of non-natives from have written great books both set in and about the US, it's worth thinking about why Portis' works get grouped in with Mark Twain's and not Vladimir Nabokov's. I think it's mostly due to the brilliantly intimate way that Portis sketches his characters, who usually fall into two main archetypes: credulous yokels and self-confident hustlers. Right from the very first page of this book, when WW1 soldier Lamar Jimmerson is convinced to pay $200 for the secret magisteria of the legendary Gnomon Society by a man who is variously called Nick from Turkey or Mike from Egypt or Jack from Syria or Robert from Malta, Portis sets up a great story with fascinating characters. The actual con that begins the story is over in a matter of pages, but the childlike faith with which Lamar pursues his dreams of being a Gnomon - whose Pythagorean rituals and lore, involving cones and spirals and triangles, are never described completely but alluded to constantly - sustains not only him but at one point thousands of others who flock to his banner. Early on he meets the Englishman Sydney Hen who convinces him to share in his secrets, and with the eventual arrival of diabolically inventive henchman Austin Popper the rest of the book unfolds in hilarious overlapping layers of bullshit, as the Society rises, splinters, and falls, and Popper strikes out on his own all over the map as a demented bibulous überfraud. This is on one level a classic satire of American society, which has always been made up of joiners and mystics and truth-seekers. There is no club or fraternal organization so ridiculous that it can't find a membership of willing dupes; partly this reflects our sheer size, and partly it also reflects the perennial tendency for such a materialistic society to find Higher Meaning in all sorts of things. I think there's a fairly clear continuum from the Great Awakenings through Sixties spiritualism and up to the Jesus Camps of the present day. But what could have been a bitter polemic about American stupidity is a genial, affectionate comedy about lost souls, and though there's some scenes of decay and humiliation that darken the tone of the book, overall Portis knows that America needs its P. T. Barnums, and that a world without them would be much grayer. Popper's drunken wanderings comprise most of the action in the second part of the book, and if you don't laugh out loud when he tries to convince the War Department to use compressed air as a weapon, or when he tries to conjure gold up out of the earth with Golescu the Romanian's bagweed plants, or at any of the other scenes that rank right up there with Huck Finn's encounter with the Duke and the Dauphin, then you simply have no sense of humor whatsoever. Where Portis falls short of someone like Twain is that he doesn't really tackle serious issues like racism, but no book can be all things to all people so it wasn't a problem for me. I hope he stops not writing books, we could use more from him.(less)

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Jun 13, 2011 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Texas state senator, grilling one of the Gnomons–a secret sect, promising hidden knowledge of the ancients to its initiates–says of their books: “You get hardly any sense of movement or destination.”

You could guess that this line is one of Portis’ many little jokes, his summary of his own book. Portis’ portrayal of the slippery thought and inadequate personalities that go for such societies is a delight. He recognizes that those caught up in the un-real thinking delude others, their victims,...more A Texas state senator, grilling one of the Gnomons–a secret sect, promising hidden knowledge of the ancients to its initiates–says of their books: “You get hardly any sense of movement or destination.”

You could guess that this line is one of Portis’ many little jokes, his summary of his own book. Portis’ portrayal of the slippery thought and inadequate personalities that go for such societies is a delight. He recognizes that those caught up in the un-real thinking delude others, their victims, but often also delude themselves. You might even read the book as satirizing some aspects of religious thinking and expression; but don’t worry, that’s not a required interpretation.

In any case, the book doesn’t have a very firm point; it’s “about” the journey of the book itself, the endless opportunities for Portis’ wit as much as it is about the minds of those involved in the secret wisdom of the ancients. The journey often take the form of a kind of extended aside that satirizes others besides the secret-society people with their odd secret handshakes. Portis pokes fun at journalists, maybe because he himself was a newspaper man. He pokes fun at lawyers, maybe because as a journalist he knew some. He pokes fun at legislators engaged in their “hearings,” maybe for the same reason, although maybe not well; all the humor has a gentle touch.

The wit is often sly and layered. In one scene, a group of lawyer begin talking all at once. It was, Portis says, a “talking frenzy,” a phrase than makes you think of sharks, which reminds you of the hoary comparison of lawyers to sharks–“Why didn’t the shark eat the lawyer? Professional courtesy.” So Portis gives you a two-level laugh without ever mentioning sharks or the putative comparison to lawyers at all.

It is certainly possible to write long comic novels that meander a good bit. Many years ago, I enjoyed the lengthy Tristam Shandy, reading in spurts as my son and I bummed around in Europe by foot and train. I thought the witty and entertaining Masters of Atlantis, though, could have been a tad or two shorter, and my true rating is 3.5 stars, not four. That’s as close as I’ll come to complaining.(less)

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Mar 08, 2011 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

About 70 pages into his fourth novel, Charles Portis seems to decide to turn up the heat on his simmering cauldron of fun and set the whole mess to bubbling and popping, cleanup be damned. "Masters of Atlantis" (4.5 stars) thereafter goes from a quite enjoyable, fairly amusing tale to just about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

The problems (albeit minor) the novel has in getting untracked are due mostly to the setup and history-building in this story of a secret (and often not s...more About 70 pages into his fourth novel, Charles Portis seems to decide to turn up the heat on his simmering cauldron of fun and set the whole mess to bubbling and popping, cleanup be damned. "Masters of Atlantis" (4.5 stars) thereafter goes from a quite enjoyable, fairly amusing tale to just about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

The problems (albeit minor) the novel has in getting untracked are due mostly to the setup and history-building in this story of a secret (and often not secret at all) society dedicated to the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Once that's out of the way and the author spreads the focus from Gnomon Society leader Lamar Jimmerson to his minions and those odd souls forming splinter groups, it's Katy bar the door. Portis never really tells us about the Gnomon Society in any detail, but that's sort of the point. His characters believe deeply in this malarky and obfuscation, and that's enough. Clueless sincerity is a cornerstone of good humor.

I tend to be prickly about humorous novels achieving the right tone — that world can wobble off its axis pretty easily for me — but "Masters of Atlantis," with a gentle/rollicking twist of accessible weirdness, had me all the way.

The tale opens with World War I vet Jimmerson, in France, coming into possession of an arcane book, the Codex Pappus, a tome packed with gobbledygook and just maybe secret rites and knowledge of Atlantis and whatnot. Lamar hits the ground running, sharing his find with Sydney Hen, an Englishman who eventually is to go a little rogue with his own Temple. Lamar, meanwhile, now stateside, conical Poma hat ever-present, sees his Gnomon Society — headquartered in Burnette, Ind., but with Gnomon Pillars in Florida and Texas destined to survive as well — wax and wane as the 1920s turn into the '30s and well beyond. Lamar's right-hand man, Austin Popper, finds himself pursued by an FBI man sore as hell about being brusquely denied entry into the society and determined to nail Popper for avoiding service in WWI.

Later, Lamar makes an ill-fated bid for the governorship of Indiana, a trip to Rainbow Falls State Park definitely not his campaign's proudest moment, but one of the hilarious highlights for readers. I won't soon forget the image of the journey in a seldom-driven, bald-tired heap crawling along backing up traffic, belching white smoke, of Popper's nemesis on his trail again at the falls.

Things start to go to hell at the Burnette Temple. Around Lamar's increasingly seedy enclave, kids burn tires, and tramps gain access to upper rooms and won't leave, writing curses and poems on walls and leaving foul droppings. It's a neighborhood of bums and juvenile bullies where "on every block you can see a twelve-year-old boy holding a six-year-old boy in a headlock." The Temple's confines are deafening with encroaching highway construction and the vicinity rife with construction workers. When Lamar finally is persuaded to flee Indiana for the Texas Pillar, the fun meter hits the red: bums, boys, rats and roaches in an unholy convergence as our heroes skidaddle.

Texas isn't all roses for our boys (well, now old men) when a senate hearing probes this odd society. The exchanges between Popper and the senators is priceless.

After he's decided to unleash the hounds, so to speak, Portis doesn't necessarily care where things are going and doesn't seem to know how to jump off this coaster, but sandwiched between the start and the finish is sustained hilarity that, though sometimes wild, is perpetrated by characters aswim in such misguided earnestness that it never feels out of hand even when it probably is. The fact that the decades-long machinations of these deadpan Atlantis cultists doesn't really go anywhere is beside the point. I'm not sure I'll ever look at the world in quite the same way after "Masters of Atlantis."(less)

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Jan 30, 2011 Lars Guthrie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I rank ‘Masters of Atlantis’ fourth best in my listing of Charles Portis novels. It’s also his fourth chronologically. Number one, of course, is ‘True Grit,’ then ‘Norwood,’ then ‘Gringos,’ and last, ‘The Dog of the South.’ If you are a fan of the quirky, of common-man American culture in quaintly bizarre representation, you can’t go wrong with any of them.

In ‘Masters of Atlantis,’ Portis takes on an odd American institution that worms its way into all his work—the society with secret knowledge...more I rank ‘Masters of Atlantis’ fourth best in my listing of Charles Portis novels. It’s also his fourth chronologically. Number one, of course, is ‘True Grit,’ then ‘Norwood,’ then ‘Gringos,’ and last, ‘The Dog of the South.’ If you are a fan of the quirky, of common-man American culture in quaintly bizarre representation, you can’t go wrong with any of them.

In ‘Masters of Atlantis,’ Portis takes on an odd American institution that worms its way into all his work—the society with secret knowledge. Aliens are responsible for the advances of human history, or alchemists, or lost tribes. Anyway, certain unacknowledged prophets are aware of much more that the supposed experts. The truth. And they will let you in on what’s really happening, usually for a nominal fee and a special greeting for members only.

This kind of thing is still around, perhaps attaining its most virulent form in the brotherhood of Beck, but more genteel fraternal organizations do survive. The heyday of Shriners and Moose, Freemasons and Rosicrucians, though, seems to have passed. That’s a movement in our history that Charles Portis undoubtedly regrets, and he joyfully pays tribute to gnostic knowing with this comic homage.

It’s Portis’s most ambitious work in the number of major characters and historical context. The Gnomon society achieves intermittent fame and fortune not only through the initial efforts of Lamar Jimmerson, who returns to the States after World War I with the ‘Codex Papas’ and establishes a temple in Burnette, Indiana. There’s also Sidney Hen, fellow Master and leader of Gnomonism in England, then Canada, then Mexico, before finally being reunited with Jimmerson in the La Coma trailer park just outside of Brownsville, Texas.

And there are lower ranking figures who play significant roles in this story. One of the chief disciples of the Gnomon way as it approaches the end of the twentieth century is Maurice Babcock, who Portis describes in great, and marvelous detail: ‘not fat but with the soft look of a middle-aged bachelor who has a good job, money in the bank,’ who takes ‘pills and time-released capsules throughout the day,’ avoids ‘all foods prepared in aluminum cookware,’ and eats ‘a bowl of bran at bedtime to scour the pipes.’

It’s Babcock who gets to go on the inevitable Portis road trip, which has to be squeezed into the overstuffed story. Too bad, with this kind of observation: ‘The farmers of America, Babcock noticed, had stopped wearing straw hats, overalls and high-top shoes, and had gone over to the trucker’s uniform of baseball caps, tight jeans and cowboy boots, this outfit having the raffish air of the pool hall.’

Women cannot be privy to the myteries of the Cone of Fate, but Portis still manages to include some strong ones who play prominent parts. Indeed, ‘Masters of Atlantis’ suffers from an embarrassment of riches. A Portis story by nature meanders, but this one especially seems to wander, nevertheless keeping the reader chuckling as it does so. The extensive cast and the extended time frame are heavy burdens for Portis's intimate and colloquial style.

Would that Portis had centered the tale on the novel’s most impressive creation, Austin Popper, the quintessential glad-handler, an irrepressible promoter who is ‘sometimes facetious in a most unbecoming way,’ with ‘a vulgar inclination to make everything clear,’ and ‘a ready fund of information gleaned from newspapers and popular magazines.’ When momentum flags, you can depend on Austin Popper for a jump start.

When ‘the wisdom of Atlantis’ fails to gain attention, or funding, it’s Popper who offers the chance ‘to harness secret powers, tap hidden reserves, plug in to the Telluric Currents.’ An unforgettable character with a talking blue jay, he gives new meaning to the expression seize the moment. Popper throttles it.

Popper’s appearance before the Churton Committee of the Texas Senate, investigating ‘the recent infestation of the state by various cults, sects, communes, cells, covens, nature tribes and secret societies,’ is absolutely priceless. It is his personality that makes wading through the digressions, amusing as they are, of ‘Masters of Atlantis,’ worth it.
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Jun 15, 2010 Johnny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor

In this marvelous send-up of esoteric societies, Charles Portis touches one's risability with a series of chaotic reverses and unintended consequences worthy of a Marx brothers movie. To be sure, there is nothing that "couldn't" happen in Masters of Atlantis. It isn't zany in the sense of Robert Asprin's Myth, Inc. or the bizarre future detective adventures from John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem (as in The Radioactive Redhead), but there are times when it seems like changes in circumstances appear...more In this marvelous send-up of esoteric societies, Charles Portis touches one's risability with a series of chaotic reverses and unintended consequences worthy of a Marx brothers movie. To be sure, there is nothing that "couldn't" happen in Masters of Atlantis. It isn't zany in the sense of Robert Asprin's Myth, Inc. or the bizarre future detective adventures from John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem (as in The Radioactive Redhead), but there are times when it seems like changes in circumstances appear almost as fast as in those books.

Masters of Atlantis begins when a World War I veteran decides not to return to the United States immediately after wrapping up his armistice chores. While seeking that transcendent idea that would make his life meaningful, he meets a fellow who purports to have esoteric knowledge of the ancient civilization of Atlantis. The illuminati who share this esoteric knowledge are known as Gnomen and the veteran ends up (largely through external stimuli) creating a secret society to propagate the mathematical and spiritual esoterica associated with the initial secrets passed along by the mysterious stranger.

Of course, since the narrator's perspective is quite skeptical of any value within the society's doctrines and equates it with all sorts of Rosicrucian and Free Mason esoterica, we don't see the protagonist as a particularly strong and vital character. He experiences some successes in spite of himself, but invests his life in search of mysteries that don't seem to help him find the kinds of successes that the "truth" he espoused would enable him to gain.

Indeed, for such a clear-seeing protagonist, he is remarkably other-driven. The characters that drive him toward his improbable successes and failures are much more interesting. The two most important, the hero's eventual brother-in-law Sydney Hen and his oft-times advance man Austin Potter, are much more interesting. Sydney Hen being the kind of confidence man you would expect to leave Wesson Oil behind after a "sincere" handshake and Austin Potter being the "New Age" equivalent of Elmer Gantry (but with different "vices").

For me, the best part of the book was the protagonist's (Lamar Jimmerman's) naivete getting him into absurd situations. Here the character is supposed to be this far-seeing, mystical scholar, but he gets pushed into the strangest situations. There is also a legislative hearing, which allegedly takes place in Austin, Texas, which rings incredibly true with regard to such hearings and had me chuckling out loud with regard to certain all-too-typical exchanges.

In short, the humor in this book provides a cautionary tale about what happens when one is so mystically minded that one is of no practical good. It isn't the type of novel I would normally seek out, but it was a perfect change of pace for me in starting the summer. The only trouble is that I have a similar book that looks even more of absurdist variety on my "to read" shelf and I may need to try something different before I dive into that one.(less)

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Sep 15, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

There's underrated, there's severely underrated, . . . and then, there's Charles Portis, one of the truly all-time greatest writers you've never heard of. Oh, sure, you may be smart enough to know that he wrote the novel _True Grit_, which of course was transformed into that Great American John Wayne film, but did you have any inkling that that novel was, oh, roughly 43,879 times better than the film? (I am in no way putting down the film, which I actually like.)

And this novel, Masters of Atlant...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Jim Leckband rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I was an undergraduate searching for belief systems (or for denunciations of belief systems - they are essentially the same thing) I came across a curious book in the Main Library. The book was called Lawsonomy and it was a wacky introduction to a early 20th century "philosophy" of Alfred Lawson. "Lawsonomy" was self-published and must have been donated to the library at some point. In any case, the all-encompassing claims, magical thinking and off-the-wall screwiness (the "zig-zag" theory...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Mary Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars

Masters of Atlantis is supposed to be a spoof on various secret societies in which "other people" participate. The main character, Lamar Jimmerson (an American)is a recently-discharged WWI vet who is swindled by a man who gives him a book, the "Codex Pappus," which is supposed to contain the collective wisdom of Atlantis, and for $200.00, allows him admission to the secret Gnomon society. Although the swindler is never seen again, Jimmerson, with Sydney Hen(an Englishman), starts a American bran...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Stefan Petrucha rated it 3 of 5 stars

As a long-time lover of the esoteric and someone blown away by True Grit, I was excited to learn Portis had written a novel about secret sects. My excitement continued for the first few pages, with some sparkling, funny images, but quickly waned.

While True Grit’s characters are flawed, they were compelling, likable and wrapped in a driving story. Seeing the world through their eyes was an intimate experience. It reminded me of Steinbeck, one of my favorite authors, who clearly loved his characte...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

I have to say that I was really impressed by the first two Charles Portis books I read, Dog of the South and Norwood, so I recently ordered the rest of his back catalogue. Master of Atlantis is the first of those books I’ve read. I have to admit this one was a little more difficult to get into at the start with all the talk of occults, conspiracy societies, and secret societies, which are things that I have little interest in. In some ways, Portis is the master of creating portraits of American...more

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Nov 23, 2011 Richard Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-alouds

Some laugh-out-loud funny stuff.

Unfortunately, there is no character that you can develop a strong attachment to.

The book begins with a con. Lamar Jimmerson, a soldier in France at the end of the First World War, is invited to become a member of the Gnomon Society, a secret organization dedicated to preserving the lost lore of Atlantis. It never occurs to Lamar that the guy who "borrowed" three hundred dollars from him has sold him a bill of goods, and he devotes the rest of his life to the stud...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Seana rated it 4 of 5 stars

This one is a tough call. It's odd when you have a great liking for a book without really being able to figure out who you'd recommend it to, or what kind of endorsement you'd give it. As a prose stylist totally in command of the story he wants to tell, this book should probably get a five. But the story he wants to tell is so offbeat, and the humor so understated that I'm still not even sure why Portis felt compelled to tell it.

Masters of Atlantis follows an ever growing cast of characters as t...more

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May 03, 2011 Randy Wise rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is another great one by Portis. The emphasis here is not on what secret knowledge supposedly is held in the "Codex Pappus" or by the Gnomon brotherhood, but on the quirkiness and obsessions of the secret society founders. Jimmerson, Babcock, Hen and Popper begin their secret society amidst the greatest conflict of the twentieth-century, WWII. However, they have little concern or interest in the war or, actually anything resembling reality. It is this obsession with so-called Telluric Curren...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Dillon Strange rated it 5 of 5 stars

It was bittersweet finishing this one. Now there are no more Charles Portis novels left for me to read. This one was just as funny all the others, even if the plot and pacing were not as sharp as they could be. It tells the story of the Gnomons, a secret society devoted to preserving the knowledge of Atlantis. While I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for reading this author, try Norwood or The Dog of the South for that, this is still really zany with some great characters and some of...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Craig Wright rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-25

Masters of Atlantis is a satire on secret societies and their founders and followers. Lamar Jimmerson is told by a man he has never met before that he must protect the way of the Gnomon Society, but he would only reveal its secrets to him if Lamar bought the mysterious man dinner. Lamar not only buys the man dinner, but then goes on to devote his life to preserving the Gnomon way and uncovering all of the lost secrets of the city of Atlantis. Portis's books are strange enough that you feel the n...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own

This is the third Charles Portis book I've read in a row. (The previous two were "The Dog of the South" and "True Grit.") I've loved them all for different reasons, but I am going to take a break now before I read the others. For one thing, there's only five novels (and an odds-and-ends anthology) in total, so I might just as well conserve my thrills. Also, with really distinctive writers like this and Kurt Vonnegut and Samuel Beckett, long immersion in that voice leads to one becoming inured to...more This is the third Charles Portis book I've read in a row. (The previous two were "The Dog of the South" and "True Grit.") I've loved them all for different reasons, but I am going to take a break now before I read the others. For one thing, there's only five novels (and an odds-and-ends anthology) in total, so I might just as well conserve my thrills. Also, with really distinctive writers like this and Kurt Vonnegut and Samuel Beckett, long immersion in that voice leads to one becoming inured to what are really very interesting approaches and tricks. Sure, you get a sense of the through-lines of their work by steep immersion, but you also get kind of burned out.

I came to "Masters of Atlantis" expecting (based on reviews from friends who have read it) for it to be my favorite of three. It wasn't, but it's definitely second-favorite with some upward momentum. I still give "The Dog of the South" the nod, because of the personal tone of the narrative, the distinctive first-person voice of Ray Midge, which, like Mattie Ross, was one of the best-drawn characters I've met in a book. "Masters of Atlantis" is intentionally written in a somewhat formal third-person, as if it's an "official" narrative about the history of the organization, and I think it pushes us away from the characters just a little. Not a lot, but it's a significant break in tone from the others, the omniscient narrator rather than the flummoxed Midge or steel-eyed Ross.

But that's a minor quibble. What "Masters of Atlantis" does better than either is create a span of history, and a unique corner of the world that pops with strange details. It's simultaneously pitched for both pathos and slapstick (which is a form of pathos, especially if someone acts the way you'd actually act if you slipped on a banana peel or were slapped by someone you knew). I don't want to spoil the joy of revealing the plot, which is pretty winding and goes from 1917 until the present day (mid-'80s when the book was written). However, the stuff I want to talk about is more of a structural spoiler (i.e. I talk about underlying motivations), so maybe stop reading this if you haven't read the book yet. Or jump to the last paragraph. Or ruin it for yourself, what do I give a shit?

What I loved about the book was its submission to inertia. The book starts at a low-energy place, builds up just enough speed to pull out of the station, and then spends the rest of its time pretty much coasting downhill. It's a story about an invented religion (or secret society, or cult, or whatever you want to call it), but it doesn't hit a lot of the common touchstones that religious parodies hit. First of all, the Gnomon teachings. We never really find out what they are. The opening pages suggest that the man that gave Jimmerson the book was a confidence trickster (given the weeks of free meals and $200 for "official rainments"), but we never really find out where the text came from. I expected that we might find out that it was just a poorly translated Greek travel book or something -- the standard touchstone of "isn't crazy the way religious people worship a blah that actually stands for blah blah," but Portis isn't interested in any of that. To him, the "Codex Pappas" is just the "Codex Pappas." We know all we need to know. Pletho Pappas comes for a visit a few times, and is brusquely turned away each time. Would he have explained more? Was he real? Is any of this "Real"? Doesn't matter to Portis. He just wants to watch his characters trudge through their entropic lives.

After a brief burst of activity in Europe (and even less in the States), membership in the Gnomon faith dwindles to nearly nothing. The Temple stands between two highways, and the old men sleep in the comfy chairs of the Red Room, as the rest of the house becomes dilapidated. There's a "charismatic frontman" in Austin Popper, but he spends most of his time drunk and fucking up. The failed Gnomon who becomes an investigator is always almost about to catch Popper, but never quite does. The Congressmen of Texas are deeply concerned about the Gnomon influence on "The elderly, college students, and other people with impaired thinking," and launch an investigation, not realizing that the church has not picked up a new disciple in decades, and may never. (The Congressional hearing on Gnomonism genuinely made me laugh out loud.)

There's quiet nihilism to the whole story, kind of like Robert Downey's film "Greaser's Palace." It takes all the pieces of religious allegory and just rubs them together, suggesting something worse than "there is no god," that "the slow, boring process of religious may prevent us for looking for god." But maybe that's not even it. If ever there was a book that has more fastidiously avoided telegraphing its point, I don't know what it could be. "Masters of Atlantis" lays itself out for us without rhyme or reason. "The Dog of the South" spent every page longing for sense in a nonsensical world. "Masters of Atlantis" seems to be fine with no answers, and even dwindling questions. It's less Mark Twain and more Samuel Beckett in that sense. We don't come away with "religion is stupid" or "they hung their faith on trifles even they didn't understand." It was something closer to "my obsession looks completely ridiculous to others."

That said, the world created by Portis in this book was better and more detailed than any I've seen so far. It was the world I most hated leaving of the three, the one I wished would continue for a few hundred more pages, the one I felt most "in." I might dock it a half a star (4.5) for some moments where the characters get unrealistically buffoonish. "I've got a meeting for you with this booster group. They will help restore our standing in the community." "What time is the meeting?" "2:00." "We can't...that's my nap time." Also, the booster group were these over-the-top caricatures who had meetings with names like "Plundering In Broad Daylight" and "Exploiting Others Without Remorse." For such a deft satirist, there were some surprisingly on-the-nose moments. These are quibbles, sure, but when you have three books each of which you'd award the five-star rating to, it's only the tiny details that keep you from putting all three uncomfortably on the gold-medal pedestal.

Like everything I've read from Portis, this is unquestionably recommended. But don't forget to read "The Dog of the South," too. (less)

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Oct 15, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, four-star-plus-reads

Masters of Atlantis tells the life story of curiously passive Lamar Jimmerson, Master of the Gnomon Society, and the various acolytes and ne'er-do-wells who tag along with him for the ride. Of these the most interesting by far is Austin Popper, a sort of low-budget Elmer Gantry. There are one or two female characters in supporting roles, but the main characters are all men. The book reminded me of Michael Chabon's Kavalier & Clay, with the exception that the events in Kavalier & Clay wer...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Krok Zero rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-2011

My favorite Portis, I think. Such perfect command of tone: stone-face deadpan treatment of screwball-nutty material, like the prose equivalent of a Buster Keaton film. The nominal subject is cults and secret societies, but that's just Portis' entry point into the same kind of earnest eccentrics that all his novels are about. These kooks' behavior is presented totally matter-of-factly. This book is so hilarious. Was there a 20th century fiction writer funnier than Portis? I'm failing at writing a...more My favorite Portis, I think. Such perfect command of tone: stone-face deadpan treatment of screwball-nutty material, like the prose equivalent of a Buster Keaton film. The nominal subject is cults and secret societies, but that's just Portis' entry point into the same kind of earnest eccentrics that all his novels are about. These kooks' behavior is presented totally matter-of-factly. This book is so hilarious. Was there a 20th century fiction writer funnier than Portis? I'm failing at writing an interesting review, so I'll just reproduce one of the many LOL-worthy passages. The context of this is that a hack writer has been hired to write the biography of protag Lammar Jimmerson, leader of the Gnomon Society, and Jimmerson (isn't that a hilarious name?) is none too happy with the liberties taken by the biographer:

‘Corpulent genius’ was fair enough. ‘Viselike grip’ was good. It was pleasing to see his oyster eyes described as ‘two live coals.’ The fellow had a touch, all right, but how had he come up with such things as ‘the absolute powers of a Sultan’ and ‘the sacred macaws of Tamputocco’ and ‘Peruvian metals unknown to science’ and ‘the Master awash in his oversize bathtub’ and ‘likes to work with young people’ and ‘a spray of spittle’? Why was he, Lamar Jimmerson, who never raised his voice, shown to be expressing opinions he had never held in such an exclamatory way that droplets of saliva flew from his lips?

Peruvian metals unknown to science.

Found a good review here http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/... from which I will also quote:

In his earlier books, specifically the first two, Portis's main characters are guided by what strikes me as a distinctly American brand of optimism and up-by-your-bootstraps tenacity. Masters of Atlantis, then, is about what happens when those same qualities are misguided, or manipulated by delusional hucksters, or both. At any rate, our story is under way, and it is told in a cool, unwavering deadpan that establishes vast chasms of irony as events become more preposterous, beginning with the arrival of Austin Popper, Mr. Jimmerson's on-again off-again spokesman and, without question, one of American literature's most hilarious creations.

Truth. Read this thing.(less)

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Nov 11, 2008 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2008

“Do you know what’s going on?”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”

Ahhh… another Portis read. Finding an old booklet filled with wisdom from the legendary city of Atlantis (or just a drunk sod’s incoherent scribblings) the movement of Gnomonism was born and flourished, then floundered, and fell flat in America.

Reminded me of my civics class back in the 7th grade. Coach Ledet, clipboard breaking football coach and teacher of civics taught us about the freedom we enjoyed in America; freedom even to worship a banana...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

From the other reviews I read, I expected a funnier, but not necessarily a happier book. I didn't find much to care about in this well written story about men who are on the fringe, looking for some secret truth and/or some meaning in this life. I found it bittersweet and almost too understated. I didn't care enough about the characters to laugh or cry. While you could argue that they finally find community and even happiness, it is really only a half-measure because that is all these characters...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Gsmattingly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hm, maybe 2.5 instead of 3 stars. I finished it but I had to push myself. A strange book which oddly enough reminds me of Lawsonomy and Alfred Lawson. Admittedly it is about a more occult religion but they both really started in the 1930's and then died out, for the most part. It was interesting in that sense, mapping the times of the fictional church and the head(s) of it. Interesting in an odd way, I suppose.

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Nov 16, 2012 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed "The Dog Of The South", but this is even better. Either I've read this book totally wrong, or "Masters Of Atlantis" is the best novel on religious organizations since "Elmer Gantry". And I mean that as a compliment towards religion. The Austin Popper chapters, especially his days in Rocky Mountain exile and his final confrontation with those who would shut him up, are especially good.

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Jul 22, 2012 Craig rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first half of this book is very funny indeed in its brisk satire of secret societies. The second half which depicts the rapid decay of the Gnomon society and its impotent leader, Lamar Jamerson, is pure farce and satirizes nothing. The writing is sharp but I have limited patience for farce. At least Portis ends this after 250 pages - Halprin's Freddy and Fredericka mines a similar vein for over 550 pages.

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Jan 17, 2011 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars

You cannot get better than Charles Portis. It is amazing to me how contained and unique each of his books are, how the tone is perfect for each story, and changes from book to book. This one is amazing. I am already rereading it, it's dense and funny and important. Charles Portis makes me go dumb.

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Apr 25, 2013 Mitch rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finishing the last 50 pages or so in bed, I'm pretty certain I levitated off my mattress with laughter. It was my second read-through, and this time around I noticed Charles Portis's writing massages the same area of my brain as do Bertie Wooster's inner monologues. Ahhhh. Nice.

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Apr 11, 2013 Alex White rated it 5 of 5 stars

This journalistic, deadpan account of a middle-American cult is so weird, so outre, that it straddles that fine line between plausible biographical novel and fiction. The odd-ball characters are so life-like they could be members of the Republican Party. I read it in a single sitting.

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