Book 79 - Where the Restaurant Provides a Mirror and a Metal Straw

Title: Gun, With Occasional Music Author: Jonathan Lethem Genre: sci-fi noir mystery

I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but it sure wasn't Alice in Wonderland meets Fahrenheit 451, with a dash of Requiem for a Dream for good measure. Talking animals dressed in bathrobes and in suits, socially acceptable "make" which everyone snorts on the daily and out in the open, and evolved babies who have their own underage bars where they drink away their troubled childhoods - this book is unlike anything I've ever read.

As a sci-fi novel published in 1994, the female presence is still pretty lacking, and the few females that exist within the pages spend a lot of time pressed against our antihero - or dead. But, they have some agency and occupy spaces of moderate power, so the inequities are not as glaring/distracting.

Annnnd I can't leave this review without mentioning this important fact, and one that jolted me out of the narrative when it became obvious: Jonathan Lethem clearly hasn't the foggiest idea of what the female orgasm feels like, or his protag wouldn't have been quite so peeved at having his genital nerve endings swapped with an old flame. That one, good sir, you got completely wrong.

Rating: 🎿🎿🎿/5