Pym

Totally wacky in a way I didn't expect - which was wonderful! The first 50-75 pages didn't do much for me but after the group arrives at their destination, the story really picks up. However, the first bit of the book paired with an ending that left too many questions unanswered made for a slightly underwhelming read. ( )

Some parts in the middle really seemed to drag, but overall I enjoyed the book a lot. ( )

Bizarre, hilarious, scathing satire of American racism, all refracted through the lens of Edgar Allen Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym." Tons of fun. ( )

How can any novel manage to be so smart and so ridiculous at the same time? In this novel, Johnson tells a story even more incoherent and open-ended than his source of inspiration, Poe's [b:The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket|766869|The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket |Edgar Allan Poe|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1341387331s/766869.jpg|44915222]. But within his chosen framework of comedic satire, Johnson also makes intellectually exuberant arguments, a cascade of them, about literature, race, identity, feminism, love, and the historical inheritance of slavery. He even manages to explore the conditions under which genocide might be morally justified. It's a wonderful social satire, and a very enjoyable read, as long as you allow it to sweep you along, instead of permitting it to make you cranky for the way it never really acts like a novel is supposed to act. I would recommend reading Poe's novel immediately before this one as the passages of 'literary analysis' in Johnson's novel are priceless and many of the plot lines run parallel to Poe's, where an immediate experience of Poe's story, missing dog and all, will make Johnson's sendup all the more delightful. ( )

A very odd book. Quite an amazing riff on Edgar Allen Poe's Pym book. A weird book that fascinated me when I read it. Didn't have my ears tuned at that time to the racial overtones of the book. Johnson does an over the top job of meditating on and at the same time lampooning this book, nineteenth-century and twentiety century takes on race and racism, and literary criticism in the current century. In the end too talky and preachy, too pleased with itself (though blessedly with the humor). Just didn't come together for me. But certainly much more ambitious than your average fare. (Listened to audiobook.) ( )