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Title: As She Climbed Across the Table (Vintage Contemporaries) by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0375700129 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: March, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.81
Rating: 5
Summary: Bizarre yet very moving love story
Comment: I purchased this book the day it was released because I loved both of Lethem's earlier novels and his short stories, despite the fact that the subject matter of AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE didn't pique my interest at all. However, Lethem's handling of the subject is brilliant, taking an extremely implausible scenario (boy loves girl, boy loses girl to literally Nothing...) and makes it beatifully, hilariously, painfully real. The characters are very well rounded and the dialog is witty and touching. Thinking back on it, I would have liked to have spent more time with Alice before Lack came into the picture, to get a feel for why Phillip cares about her so deeply, but that is a minor quibble. I loved how Lack himself becomes such a strong character, despite the fact that he is devoid of, well, everything. Lack touches everyone that comes into contact with him, changing them forever.
Easily the best novel I've read this year.
Rating: 5
Summary: This Book Had a Profound Impact on My Life
Comment: I remember standing in the aisle of a Mr. Paperback bookstore, science fiction section, still in my "Dragonlance" phase in high school. On the shelf, I noticed a book with a picture of a detective with a mirror laid out in front of him, fat lines of drugs, and a kangaroo in the corner. It was called "Gun, With Occasional Music". I bought it immediately, and fell in love with Jonathan Lethem. A few years later, never having spotted any of his other books in the meantime, I found a copy of "As She Climbed Across the Table" in the Bennington College Bookstore (Lethem, incidentally, is a Bennington alum). I bought it immediately, not even glancing at the back for a synopsis. I read it all that night. I had lost a girlfriend recently when I bought this book. I felt like underlining every word of love and loss that was uttered by the lead character. The emotion was deep, the words were beautiful, and it was such a sweet love story told in such an unusual way (i.e., not sappy or stupid), that it was a chill salve for my love-wounds. Lethem is a genius. "As She Cimbed Across the Table" is a must-read for any romantic, as well as anyone looking for a keen satire on the academic life. Bravo and hear hear! I've already told everyone I know about it, and bought a copy for a special girl.
Rating: 3
Summary: an accessibly contained, entertaining meditation on reality
Comment: I picked up this book, curiously enough, after reading William James' A PLURALISTIC UNIVERSE, a rather dense and intensely british series of lectures on the nature of reality, the probability of the absolute, and the faults of monistic philosophy.
Lethem's more contemporary and extremely witty AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE seemed to package up the subject matter of James' text and apply it to theoretical people, just as an experiment. The book, under the guise of a sweetly quirky and romantic love story, examines our relation to the other--in Lethem's version strangely anthropomorphized as a vacancy, a -nothing- referred to affectionately (-quite- affectionately) as 'Lack.' Though Lethem's brain is clearly an intelligent one directed at more than entertainment, the more heady allegorical level of the book struggles to unfetter itself from the romance, rather than interact with it, tainting Lack with false humanity, rather than letting the real humans in the story face Lack's true emptiness. Instead, they -become- the vacancy, leaving another extratextual lack behind them that Lethem is too busy swooning to intend.
altogether a fun and unassuming piece of unchallenging but thought-provoking fiction, which stays well within its bounds.
(postscript: I am curious to know who the reader from maine is who purchased the book at the bennington college bookstore--i am a bennington alum as well as Lethem...)
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Title: Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0375703918 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0312862202 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0312858787 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: This Shape We're In by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0970335520 Publisher: McSweeney's Books Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye: Stories by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0312863535 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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