Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s: The Man in the High Castle , The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch , Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , Ubik (Science Fiction Cult)
Ecstasy! Jonathan Lethem is channeling philip k. dick in this upcoming volume for the Library of America (yes, it sounds like Voice of America.. and it was started with NEA seed money in 1982.. perhaps to fight the Great Threat of Russian Literature trying to Swamp Americas Patriotic Heritage), but who cares about that. These are four great novels. Particularly Ubik and the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Jonathan Lethem is a lucky guy, kinda like getting your name carved onto the replicas of tombstones of famous people made for tourists in Guyacanal, Uruguay. Walking up steep mountain paths and watching the children drink gasoline in the garbage dumps. Like proximity to God. Or, in the case of Palmer Eldritch, proximity to... whatever that thing is. With the teeth and the eye-slit. We dont usually review books that havent even been printed yet, in case dogs urinate on monuments to the successful sales of the book a billion years in the future on bleak planets surrounded by ghosts. The only downside is this book looks like it will be a hardcover with patriotic American colorstripes on it, and no lurid 1960 watercolors of dementia being zapped with rayguns. Plus 10 for content, but Minus 5 for style, ok, Zaphod?
- palmer Eldritch [Feb 3 2007 12:59 PM]
