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The author of five previous novels--including Slaughtermatic, a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award--Aylett writes like Robin Williams does improv: at an ever-accelerating rate. Atom is set in the noirish city of Beerlight, where the brain of Franz Kafka is sought by a cast of seedy characters with monikers like Nada Neck, Flea Lonza, and Eddie Thermidor. Private dick Taffy Atom matches wits and weapons with this misbegotten crew in a plot as convoluted as it is beside the point. What matters here is language. Aylett's hyperkinetic, magpie style sparkles with baubles of pop culture and jokes so inside they may never before have seen the light of day. Following in the slipstream of his chaotic, often inspired inventiveness makes for an exhilarating read. But alas, an exhausting one. In the end, Aylett's bravura yet one-note performance lacks a nucleus strong enough to hold readers in their orbits. --Emerson Cooper
| AUTHOR: | Steve Aylett |
| CATEGORY: | Book |
| MANUFACTURER: | Four Walls Eight Windows |
| ISBN: | 1568581750 |
| TYPE: | Detective and mystery stories,, Detective and mystery stories, English, Fiction, Fiction - Science Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective - General, Science Fiction - General, Science fiction, English |
| MEDIA: | Paperback |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
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Customer Reviews of Atom
Bleck I thought I was a pretty open-minded person a couple of years ago, but I either never was, or I have become less so in my older age. "Atom" by Steve Aylett really put my senses to the test, however.
This book, after just a few pages in, seems more like a joke on the reader than a novel. It almost reads like a Burroughs opium nightmare about a private eye, or a Gertrude Stein poem about one. There is no plot and even a nonlinear thinker will become lost amid the electron-induced battling plotlines.
I could be wrong, I hope I am, but I have a feeling that the people who loved this book and gave it excellent reviews were just not up to the task of admitting it didn't make much sense.
Dizzying--But Worth Trying
This wildly kinetic work of avant-garde sci-fi might be best described as "extreme improv writing" with loads of linguistic convolutions and pyrotechnics that are the end unto themselves. The story, such as it is, is populated by a P.I. and a bunch of outrageous gangsters racing to recover Kafka's stolen brain. Or at least, I think that's the gist of it... the wordplay moves so quickly and violently in building images up and tearing them down that it's hard to keep track of what's actually going on. Everyone speaks with over-the-top verbal tics and sarcasm. The imagery one gets is sort of a near future Maltese Falcon or Kiss Me Deadly but with decidedly odder weapons and setting. The inventiveness in language and imagery is truly impressive, check out my favourite passage: "Like most flux technology, the Syndication bomb hinged on a cheap but ingenious trick. Rather than actually stripping the subtext from the blast site, it converted the wave range into a living Updike novel, the subtext containing information everyone already knew--the end result was a shallow reality in which every move was a statement of the obvious." As this passage tells you, there are inside jokes by the barrelloads here, and if you don't get one, don't bother to re-read, because there's sure to be another on the next page. After a while, this hyperkinetic slapsticky style gets wearying, and the lack of story starts to show through. Still, worth checking out if you're looking for something unusual.
Too wild a ride for some, perhaps, but...
I found Atom truly original, laugh-out loud funny: my prediction is that Aylett will come to be recognized as one of the most interesting writers of our day. Aylett does things with the language I've never before encountered: this novel is a riotous take on Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon, although anyone who's not open to an EXTREMELY raucous, funny and bizarre viewpoint need not apply. He's challenging, but not in a ponderous way: no neat plot structure, no nice, logical development...but WELL worth your money. None of the same old, same old here.
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