The Gone Away World
by Nick Harkaway
 Okay, I promise not to do the entirety of this review in green and hot pink. It's just that they made the book cover hot pink, green, and fuzzy, people. Hot pink, green and fuzzy.
Anyway, to the review proper. Except I don't know that it can be a proper review, since this really isn't a proper book. It's insane, tragic, hysterical, illuminating, exculpating, fascinating, ludicrous, surreal, brilliant - all in a few pages. Easily a contender for book of the year in the not-at-all-famous Drew Williams' best book of the year contest. And 2008 was a damn good year. I won't say that Harkaway writes like a young Jonathan Lethem, because, well, he doesn't; more that he reminds me of Lethem before Lethem forgot that it was possible to have fun in any sort of un-ironic manner. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much on both an intellectual level (in the sense of me going 'my, what fascinating sentence structure. My, what an interesting way to collapse the plot in around itself. My, this cat is insane') and on an emotional level (in the sense of me going 'wheeeeee!').
Now, I'll grant that I have an extreme fondness for genuinely likeable, I'd-like-to-have-a-beer-with-this-guy narrators, ala Max Barry or Christopher Moore. But it's been a really, really long time - if ever - since I met that sort of guy in the pages of a book that wasn't just an out-and-out comedy. Especially one that does kung-fu (kung-fu!). The writing style sits at that razor edge of almost incomprehensible just because you're so, so deep into this guy's head, which makes for a fascinating read (Harkaway writes like Chuck Palahniuk fans think Chuck Palahniuk writes, except unfortunately he actually writes like a twelve year old who's only purpose in life is to gross you out, except with a better vocabulary and unfettered access to the internet). Also, I'm a big fan of the half-of-this-novel-is-a-flashback-structure, and this one's not actually laden with 'but the doom that would soon encompass us all, bum bum bum bah dahhhhh'.
So I should probably do some sort of plot synopsis, huh? Except, really, that's kind of a cheat; half the fun of Gone Away World is it's ability to take you places not only did you not expect to go, I'm fairly sure Harkaway didn't expect to go. Like when the mimes show up. Mimes! For a post-apocalyptic anti-war protest head-trip, in retrospect, there's actually a great narrative through-line here. It's just not the sort of thing one dwells too much upon when there's so much fun to be had.
Alright, in closing: Harkaway's a great new talent, and I expect great things from him, mainly because this debut is already a great thing. Also, he's John Le Carre's son. Really, really wierd. not at all what one would expect.
-Drew |
Next SigningClaire Datnow
will be signing
 Wednesday
February 15
1:00 - 3:00 pm Little Professor Bookclub |
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