- Hardcover: 149 pages
- Publisher: Subterranean Press (October 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1596060131
- ISBN-13: 978-1596060135
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 15 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Having reimagined the past (A Scattering of Jades; One King, One Soldier), Irving presents an intriguing near-future in which America has suffered devastating natural disasters and the government has welcomed supposedly benign aliens known as "Bettys," though some Christian fundamentalists regard them as bioengineered demons. When ex-Marine Gabriel "Bib" Riley, part of the U.S. president's protective team, is accused of shooting a squatter on the south lawn of the White House and thereby inciting a riot, he disappears. Four different characters—Bib's wife, Zena; religious fanatic Truman Throckmorton; a streetie named Nate Drinkwater; and an alien Betty—wonder what really happened. Zena is told her husband inadvertently carries a device that may doom humankind. Does he? Some of the aliens have evidently accepted Christianity, or have they? Why are the Bettys here? Why does Lawanda Riley think her son is the Messiah? Irvine untangles some of the plots and counterplots by the end of this kooky novella, but doesn't supply enough answers for the reader to feel completely rewarded.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
By 2034, ecological breakdown has raised water levels and temperatures and even induced earthquakes. Moreover, aliens, whom Americans call Bettys, have arrived. They are even-tempered, rational, and pacific, though capable of meeting force with force. They are popular and imitated, but some distrust them, fearing that they have a hidden agenda. They do. They are humanity's superior relations, come to put their "cousins" back on track. Although that project remains largely secret, Christian survivalists have their suspicions and now present a threat. So presidential guard Bib Riley goes missing, allegedly fleeing a murder rap. His wife is kidnapped trying to find him; the principal adviser to the Betty guiding the project needs to contact him; the last man in Davenport, Iowa, is speed-biking east to meet him; and a homeless guy encounters him in a Manhattan-to-D.C. tunnel. Irvine's ingenious, action-packed thriller so cunningly recounts those four characters' convergence that the ending precedes the last page without impairing the suspense a bit. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written but obscure, and not much fun, Nov 18 2006
By Peter D. Tillman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Life of Riley (Hardcover)
This story about a collapsing America c. 2034 has gotten good notices, and is well-written, but I never quite figured out what was going on, and I didn't have much fun, either. Caveat lector.
G00gle for an enthusiastic review by the usually-reliable Paul Di Filippo:
"Irvine's latest book is a snappy, gimlet-eyed, utterly postmodern jaunt through the shattered landscape of America."
You may like the book more than I did, if you like gloomy stories of America on the rocks.
Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Love Uclear Plots almost as much as Unreliable Narrators, April 4 2010
By socrates17 "socrates17" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Life of Riley (Hardcover)
I must respectfully disagree with the other review in that I had no more problem following what was going on than Mr. Irvine intended me to, and I found the process of sussing it out Rashoman-style quite entertaining and satisfying. Think The Usual Suspects in film or the Commissions of Augustus Mandrell (Frank McAuliffe) in books.
Written in 4 chapters (the first 2 in the first person and the others in the 3rd) that largely cover the same time frame, the story is told through 4 radically different PoVs.
I'm not sure why I am writing this since it appears that the book is long sold out at the Subterranean Press and Mr. Irvine has probably maxed out on it's earning potential, but I like to support writers (and film makers and musicians) who I feel have done excellent work in any way I can.
If the new copies are ligeledes bekostelig, pick up one of the "Good" quality ones for a penny.
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