An interesting location. A compelling supporting cast. Classic themes of self-discovery and maturation. A good-sized dose of absurdist humor. Rodes Fishburne's debut novel, Going to See the Elephant, has a lot going for it, but an interesting protagonist and tangible sense of atmosphere aren't among them.

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Good descriptions of San Fransisco, but at time it didn't really come together. ( )

Fishburne's debut novel. Start with a great location, some nice San Francisco lore and throw in the sort of "and then THIS happened" plot that works well for the likes of Larry McMurtry and T.C. Boyle and I think you have a satisfying read. Not ground breaking or sui generis but a helluva beginning for a first time out of the blocks. ( )

Going To See The Elephant by Rodes Fishburne is a pleasant and readable first novel with colorful characters and interesting ideas. However, it lacks depth and a consistent tone that would have made it a truly great book.

Going To See The Elephant follows Slater Brown, a budding writer who has traveled to San Francisco to launch his career. He winds up writing for a long-standing but third-rate newspaper, gaining scoops through a unique and strange method.

Brown becomes a local celebrity, incurring the ire of a colorful and voracious mayor. He also falls in love with a beautiful chess player, who is on a collision course with Milo Magnet a eccentric inventor.

Fishburne does an admirable job in creating interesting characters, from grumpy, gruff, grizzled newspapermen to an eager government entourage. He creates small worlds which resonate with the reader. The newspaper. City Hall. The mad scientist’s lab. Alone, they are actually quite good. Together they begin to lose focus.

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It's often understood that first writers tend to write almost exclusively about what they know. This fact becomes very strongly evident in the first pages of Rodes Fishburne's debut novel Going to See the Elephant, as our intrepid hero, Slater Brown, struggles to find the idea that will capture his imagination and bring him fame as a great writer. Such a metaliterary moment might seem to portend dangerous territory, but Fishburne's novel quickly develops into a charming and entertaining story that flies by almost too quickly.

The novel follows Slater Brown to San Francisco, where he has relocated in search of the perfect story (his "elephant," as the brief Author's Note informs us). He struggles in his first days, lacking inspiration and losing both faith and money at an alarming pace. He eventually finds a job at a low-rent, rundown local paper, the Morning Trumpet, where the disbelieving editor forces him to prove himself by writing a great story. Lacking ideas, he seeks out a local lunchtime mystic who gives him a busted radio and headphones that, unwittingly, allows Slater to overhear telephone conversations on the bus, conversations that give him huge scoops on big stories. Soon, his life takes turns he never could have anticipated.

While that last sentence there was an unapologetically clichéd way of admitting that there's more to the plot I don't want to tell, the novel succeeds by virtue of the fact that it seems constantly on the urge of inviting cliché but never falls into the trap. Fishburne's plot has a certain slapstick quality to it, but it never veers so far off course that it sacrifices plausibility. The tone of his writing is also well-matched to the story being told: the pages flip over at a remarkably quick pace, but the book manages to avoid the curse of page-turners by actually remaining memorable, often due to the occasionally brilliant turn of phrase that Fishburne is prone to.

Similarly, the novel succeeds incredibly on the strength of its characters. Slater Brown is a remarkably relatable figure, even if the reader has no inclination to be a writer. His trials while attempting to manage his dreams with his need to survive are incredibly realistic, and the dismay he feels at his wasted potential in the early pages is remarkably poignant. Many of the novel's characters -- from the chess prodigy Callio to the brilliant inventor Milo -- have quirky characteristics, but do battle with reasonable and expected life issues in a way that never alienates them from the reader's sympathies.

It also helps that, unlike many books that advertise their humor and attempt to be funny, this book actually IS funny. Fishburne has a knack, as I've mentioned, for the well-composed line, and his descriptions are often just wry enough to elicit a giggle at a regular pace. But he also paces the story well, inserting moments of humor and silliness at an appropriate remove from the more emotional moments. Neither the funny nor the serious moments ever feel like cheap shots: they feel like the natural progressions of the character's lives, which is a great testament to Fishburne's young but powerful writing abilities.

If the novel has any weaknesses, they are difficult to identify. Without a doubt, many people will find the novel's absurdity to be a stretch of realism, particularly since Fishburne feels so strongly about setting the story within realistic contexts. The city of San Francisco practically becomes a character in and of itself, and its many moods parallel Slater's in interesting if expected ways. Milo's creations may seem out of place in an otherwise reasonably realistic landscape, but they don't push the bounds of credibility too far. And while the bumbling mayor becomes a parody of himself by the novel's end, the politics really don't matter very much when it's all said and done. It's all in service of a larger narrative about dreams, abilities, and embracing the moment -- and to that end, the novel succeeds with flying colors.

While one typically ought to raise a red flag when one sees fairly unblemished praise of a debut novel, I don't feel like such a warning is necessary here. Going to See the Elephant has no pretense of being more than it is, which is a funny, charming story that has a few nuggets of genuine wisdom hidden within its pages. Like Slater himself, the novel finds its niche and operates masterfully within it; I can't praise it any more than to say it accomplishes exactly what it seems to set out to do. Inspiring, amusing, and heartwarming, it's a novel you'll almost certainly be rooting for -- and best of all, in the end, it ends up being the underdog that wins.