Haley’s
Comet-esque, there are not many chances I have to praise a science fiction book
cover, so presented with the opportunity, I’m going to pounce. The cover of Jonathan Lethem’s 1994 Gun, with Occasional Music is not only a
nice piece of retro art, it represents the novel at all levels. (Feels strange writing those words...) The
surface is classic: the character expressions, the clothing, the mood, the
usage of lighting—it could grace the cover of a 1930s detective magazine and
none would be the wiser. Except—except
there’s that kangaroo, in a suit.
Incongruous it may seem, yet indicative it remains.
Raymond
Chandler inviting Michael Swanwick and Philip K. Dick to his house for drinks
(or perhaps something a little harder, a little more psychedelic), Gun, with Occasional Music is classic
detective noir with a futuristic, surreal spin.
While Lethem puts the majority of his effort (successfully) into getting
the right tone, the right structure, and the right character dynamics to match
the revered crime writer’s style, there remain enough evolved animals,
synthetic drugs, and other social and media oddities for the kangaroo to be
fully deserving of its place on the cover.
With its
karma points, super-intelligent babies, evolved animals, and sex nerve
swapping, the future becomes something bizarre in Gun, with Occasional Music.
Rendering it fully absurd, however, is Lethem’s full-bodied capture of
Chandler’s style. The self-abusive
private eye, the coquettish damsels, the thundering right crosses, the
voice-over narration, the wisecracking, the tweed and fedora, the hunches and
leads—the overall 1930’s ticker tape feel completely juxtapose the kangaroo,
musical guns, cryogenic prisons, and other oddities. Thus, when Ryan Britt in his
Tor.com review states “the entire
novel operates on a science fiction conceit with noir twist” I would say
the exact opposite. Drenched in Chandler, the novel operates in the mode of
hardboiled noir with a science fiction twist.
If one strips away the aforementioned sf decorations, they are left
with characterization, dialogue, plotting, ineraction, and scenes precisely in
the Chandler mold. Konrad Metcalf is
Phillip Marlowe, just caught in an uncanny near future.
In the
end, Gun, with Occasional Music is a
book for a reader who can really appreciate the nuances of Chandler’s style,
yet not be turned off by its use in a surreal setting. A classic whodunit unraveling in cynical P.I.
style, Metcalf pushes and stumbles his way through a labyrinth of clues, mafia,
police, and witnesses to track down the murderer of a well known
businessman. Kept in a haze by the drugs
he can’t shake, if it wasn’t for that damn kangaroo things might just cohere…
No comments:
Post a Comment