Nellie
New Member
SBN: 0747553866
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Date: 2001
I have to be honest and say that I am not sure where to start with this. It is a collection of short stories set in the US in the near future where Capitalism is everything. All of the characters are those who come off worst in a capitalist society, those who no matter how hard they try are never going to get a break and make it big. It all sounds a bit depressing, but there is a lot of sharply observed and very funny moments. Pastoralia was my favorite story, and focuses on a couple who work in a Disneyland type attraction. Their job is to live in a cave and pretend to be cavemen as accurately as possible. Speaking is forbidden and so they communicate through grunts and hand gestures. Every so often they receive a communication from the management giving them instructions or reprimanding them for some misdemeanor. These notes are a fabulous parody of corporate communication and sometimes get a little to close to the truth.
I should warn readers that the language in this book is pretty explicit, but doesn't seem out of place with the characters as they are drawn. They are all at the bottom of life's heap but there is a glimmer of hope for all of them.
The stories are slightly surreal, so you need to be prepared to be taken into a world which whilst holding a mirror up to our own is, quite frankly, as mad as a box of frogs.
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Date: 2001
I have to be honest and say that I am not sure where to start with this. It is a collection of short stories set in the US in the near future where Capitalism is everything. All of the characters are those who come off worst in a capitalist society, those who no matter how hard they try are never going to get a break and make it big. It all sounds a bit depressing, but there is a lot of sharply observed and very funny moments. Pastoralia was my favorite story, and focuses on a couple who work in a Disneyland type attraction. Their job is to live in a cave and pretend to be cavemen as accurately as possible. Speaking is forbidden and so they communicate through grunts and hand gestures. Every so often they receive a communication from the management giving them instructions or reprimanding them for some misdemeanor. These notes are a fabulous parody of corporate communication and sometimes get a little to close to the truth.
I should warn readers that the language in this book is pretty explicit, but doesn't seem out of place with the characters as they are drawn. They are all at the bottom of life's heap but there is a glimmer of hope for all of them.
The stories are slightly surreal, so you need to be prepared to be taken into a world which whilst holding a mirror up to our own is, quite frankly, as mad as a box of frogs.