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Bezig met laden... Shambling Towards Hiroshima (2009)door James Morrow
Books Read in 2015 (1,309) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. One of James Morrow's lighter works, Shambling Towards Hiroshima could also have been aptly titled Theater of War, as the monster movie machine of Hollywood meets the war machine of the Pentagon. An epistolary tale in the form of a lengthy suicide note written by screenwriter and rubber-monster-suit actor Syms Thorley, in which he laments his involvement in a failed attempt to use the threat of military-controlled giant monsters to end World War 2. There is much in Morrow's novel about monsters of war both real and imagined, but this morose contemplation on horror as entertainment in the Hiroshima shadows of truly monstrous acts is playfully wrapped up in a Hollywood satire. In fact, Morrow does such a good job of blending real film history with the films and filmmakers of his alternate universe that it can be hard separating truth from fiction, and considering the backdrop of propaganda-driven fictions attempting to manipulate the real world, this is probably meant to enhance/enforce the novel's overall metaphor. This isn't Morrow's first book to tangle with the dark realities of nuclear war, but it is far less morose than This Is the Way the World Ends, and possibly even a tad more hopeful. Framed as an extended suicide note, the fictionalized memoir stylings of this James Morrow satire reminded me more than a little of the delightful novels of Lee Siegel. Topically, however, it was a fit with my recent read of Kim Stanley Robinson's Lucky Strike, as science fictional reflections on human agency in the atrocity of the deployment of the atomic bomb. The narrator of Shambling Towards Hiroshima is Syms Thorley, an emeritus monster actor of B-movie fame. While sometimes adverting to his 1980s circumstance in the wake of a fan convention at a Baltimore hotel, the book is mostly trained on his past involvement in a secret WWII military project intended to provoke Japanese military capitulation in the face of actual fire-breathing leviathans bred from iguanas. The book is a quick read, with vivid, often hilarious episodes and an ultimately sobering message. This has a little bit of the Vonnegut flair (and I mean that in a very good way) in that it travels with a quirky character across absurd circumstances but by the end drops one unceremoniously back into reality viewed from a deeply moral (not to mention outraged) perspective, but Morrow is his own author with his own style. Yes, this was not his best work; I felt a little bogged down somewhere in the middle, wishing I were more of a monster movie enthusiast. That said, I read anything (and will continue to read anything) that is published by Morrow. His God trilogy is definitely worth the time. Oh, and I love this title! Can you satirise B movies? Shambling has a damm good go at it, but I'm really not sure that choosing the US Governments plans to atomic bomb Hiroshima was the best backdrop that could have been chosen. It does come across as very insensitive. The 'plot' such as it is, is that rather than bomb the Japanese people the US navy had a second better plan which was to develop GM style Godzillas that could do the job instead. And in order to not have to actually release their Behemoths' they would stage a show for the ambassadors to terrify them into surrendering. Our 'hero' is the actor chosen to play the monster instead of the scaled down version which didn't live long enough. It might have been funnier if I'd watched more B movies and had more idea about the history f some of the films and concepts but mostly it is just silly.
In the end, reading this book felt like listening to an oldies station. And to the extent that Morrow fails to grapple with this disconnect, the book remains a charming and nostalgic romp and not the powerful political satire that Morrow is capable of delivering. The latest book by famed satirist Morrow, Shambling Towards Hiroshima might be the silliest book I've read in ages, which is saying a lot considering how silly some of the others have been. And yet you sort of take its demented scenario half-seriously despite yourself, because the narrator's bitchy stream of observations feel so true-to-catty-life. Prijzen
Fiction.
Science Fiction.
Historical Fiction.
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Definitely recommended. ( )