Mad Moon: Furry Road I've read a bunch of Lethem (and a lot of Philip K Dick), so for me this novel was just a mediocre, road trip, post-apocalpytic PKD remake*. IT had obvious direct PKD references and influences: Eye in the Sky & Dr. Bloodmoney & The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. PKD is the only one who should really try to be PKD**. Later Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn & The Fortress of Solitude) & Chronic City) is more confident and sings with his own voice. This one apes and apes well at

Video reviewFor fans of Ubik-style Dick, quirky sci-fi in the same vein as Aldiss' Hothouse, and generally speaking of mutant novels that can shift shape in the span of two pages. Also, the least post-apocalyptic post-apocalyptic novel you will ever read.

This makes Dostoyevski's The Double look like child's play. And the notion of FSR--Finite Subjective Reality makes Inception's Dream Seeding like something commonplace, accessible. The Chaos/Everett interplay is the most entertaining cabal of schizophrenia I've ever encountered. Jonathan Lethem, without a doubt is a genius, Amnesia Moon is both comic and tragic, funny and heartwarming. And sometimes grotesque too. But so much fun to read. Or listen to, I listened to to the audio book narrated by...

I'm glad I read Chronic City and The Fortress of Solitude before this, because I wouldn't have tried Lethem again had this been my first experience.

Surreal, dreamy little banger evoking the early works of Ballard.

I really do not know what to make of this one -- it's bizarre and disjointed, with no clear message or even plot. But . . .There are parts here that seem allegorical (sometimes heavy handedly so) -- broad statements on American life. Intentional? Or am I just desperate to find some kind of meaning? I really couldn't say.So it's a challenging, frustrating story. I wish I could say that I liked it, but I just can't. It's unusual for me to find a book that is just too weird, but this one is definit...

Jonathan Lethem is my hero.

Loved it! What a zany dream-world! Where do dreams and reality collide? How can one tell in which state one is in? What if one's dreams collide with another's dreams? Can one stop dreaming to live reality? What's reality? This book is surreal, which makes it incredibly interesting and entertaining. Chaos moves from one dream state to another, trying to figure things out. The world has changed. Where did he come from? How can he find out? Who can he believe? What's real? As he struggles to make s...

Each chapter we learn more about Chaos' world yet each chapter we know less. Amnesia Moon is a trippy dystopian novel that follows around Chaos, a movie theater dwelling survivor, in his trek to find what is wrong with the world, and what is wrong with his memories. Lethem effectively throws us into a weird place with memories that can't quite be counted on and situations that take a few paragraphs to start making sense. The characters are all well defined (when appropriate) and I was always int...

As typical of most "literary Science Fiction" it is only interested in using the SF/Fantasy genre for a hip, ironic setting, however, it seems that Lethem lacks the talent to pull it off effectively. I forced myself to finish this book with a vague interest to find out "what happens", only to have the payoff of a lame, unsatisfying ending.

Interesting take on the post-Apocalypse/mind-bending reality genre, where reality becomes literally subjective. Sometimes it gets a little too obtuse, but there’s some really good moments and ideas. Letham’s got a weird imagination, as seen in another book of his I read awhile back, Gun, With Occasional Music. Possibly not for everyone, but if you like PK Dick, you might try this.

CRITIQUE:The Fat Man in (at the End of) Post-HistoryOnce again, Jonathan Lethem uses genre to explore and test his talent for world-building, narrative construction and dialogue.This time, it's a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Some sort of disaster has occurred. A break? Perhaps, a bomb? An alien invasion? Nobody seems to know. "There's no one explanation, Everett. People remember some kind of disaster. But there's no agreement on what it was..." "Don't worry about it. It's like a jump

Throughout the years Jonathan Lethem has made no secret of the high regard that he holds for Philip K. Dick. The MacArthur grant winner has edited and written the introduction for the Library of America anthologies of Dick's work and written several great articles about the mad prophet of science fiction's final descent into paranoia and madness. For all of this though, it wasn't until I picked up one of Lethem's first published novels, Amnesia Moon, that I was able to see just how much the hall...

I seem to have a knack for picking up the odd ones lately. This particular one is weird in my favorite kind of wacky weird way.I've been trying to think of how to explain this one without giving away the why of things, which is really the coolest part. I'm going to give it a shot.Chaos is living in Hatfork, Wyoming where the world is ruled by a man named Kellogg's dreams. After yet another unpleasant encounter, Chaos takes to the road with his furry companion, who is actually a 13 year old girl....

Since I just re-read 'Motherless Brooklyn' I thought I'd get around to reading the sci-fi book of Lethem's that's been sitting on my shelf. Unfortunately, I didn't like it nearly so much.'Amnesia Moon' is really a seriously wanna-be-Philip-K.-Dick book. If you really like Dick and his trippy perspectives on things, you might love this book. I thought it had some interesting moments - but, as a whole, it didn't work for me.It's a post-apocalyptic scenario. There's definitely been some kind of dis...

Be wary of this book. Be aware that for about two thirds of it it will make next to no sense. Be aware that the final chapter, the one in which answers are given, when the plot is made tidy, when we get to breath deep and finally "get" what's going on--that chapter is missing.Chaos lives in a future America after the bombs have dropped, living among mutants in an abandoned theater, afraid to sleep because then he will be forced to dream the dreams of the petty tyrant who rules this land. When he...

Jonathan Lethem did it to me again! I am not a great fan of science fiction but I enjoyed "Amnesia Moon" just as I enjoyed "Motherless Brooklyn" and yet do not read many murder mysteries. Here is one gem from the book, "Vance being real doesn't mean the aliens are, said Fault. It's just another dream, Everett. What better way to keep people under your thumb? Make up some big enemy, justify everything as part of the war effort." This is a story about a lost, single man named Chaos who discovers t...

First of all, I love being dropped into the middle of a story and having to figure out what's going on--seriously. Secondly, Lethem's got an easy-to-read style that just flows well and gets the pages turning right away. So, knowing all that, why only three stars?Unfortunately, my interest started waning toward the end. I'm not sure if the book actually became less interesting, or if it was a matter of lost momentum for me: I had a busy weekend where I was hardly able to get any reading in, and w...

Easily my favorite of Lethem's Dick-influenced "Concept Sci-Fi" beginnings, Amnesia Moon is part post-apocalyptic pulp, part episodic road novel, part Wizard of Oz reworking, and part surrealist philosophizing. It's pretty heavy on the familiar or cliche plot devices -- village of mutants, amnesiac protagonist, authoritarian local government, alien conspiracies, the subjective nature of the world -- but thrown together with fresh vision and panache into a truly unique work. Takes some truly unex...

3.5This book is so weird, creative, and feverish that it should be four stars, but the ending bumped it down to 3.5 stars.