gotossmycausticsalad's review against another edition
mysterious
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Picked it up because I liked the title.
I could have read a whole book about Laila, the other characters I was less interested in. Lots of story threads with open endings, so steer clear if that's not your thing.
The blurb doesn't do a great job of imparting what the book is about - the event it describes doesn't even happen until 2/3 of the way through.
I could have read a whole book about Laila, the other characters I was less interested in. Lots of story threads with open endings, so steer clear if that's not your thing.
The blurb doesn't do a great job of imparting what the book is about - the event it describes doesn't even happen until 2/3 of the way through.
lou13st's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
perednia's review against another edition
4.0
"Only connect," as E.M. Forster wrote in Howards End, to "live in fragments no more" is a wish that's appears to be a plea against the fractured, chaotic and constantly in motion life in the 21st century First World. Hari Kunzru's fourth novel, Gods Without Men, is written in fragments of different times and places, but there are slender threads connecting them to each other. Whether the reader makes those connections and feels the fabric of a novel depends on the reader. And we all know we readers are not cut from the same cloth.
The novel is about both the trickster known as Coyote and the world of humans, those foible-filled creatures. In a way, Gods Without Men is as much a myth as novel, in that Coyote has set up and been caught in a trap in which humans are involved. During diferent eras, there is the inference that if one creature escapes, another must take its place (there is a similar story in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell that ended up being surprisingly poignant).
But that is the underpinning of the various stories contained within Kunzru's book. The main narratives are of a modern New York couple whose autistic son disappears for a few months while they are out West strolling around the Three Pinnacles rock formation out in the midst of the desert, a group in the late 1950s who seek wisdom from an alien race and a commune seeking wisdom from drugs as much as the aliens. There are connections between these stories, and a few others, that are not forced but which give few hints of how it all might tie together.
The main characters in all of these narratives are well-rounded portraits with compelling storylines. Jaz Matharu is a second-generation American who has given up Sikh ways and used his mad math skills to help develop a financial market software program, Walter, that would recognize 2001: A Space Odyssey's Hal as kin. His wife, Lisa, is a lapsed Jew who gives up her publishing job after it's apparent their son, Raj, suffers from serious autism. Kunzru is adept at letting the reader see how they both got to the ratty desert motel where they stay just before Raj disappears. Kunzru also does both characters the service of letting the reader see their lives from their individual points of view. Neither is the villian. Neither is without fault. And it would be fascinating to discover what happens to them after the novel closes. The sections where they are in limbo when Raj disappears are haunting.
Another child goes missing in the late 1950s. Joanie is searching for life to mean something when she discovers the writings of a scientific crackpot who thinks he is communicating with more intelligent beings from outer space. She becomes part of a group following him, living out in the desert near the Three Pinnacles. Joanie, an innocent, loses track of her young daughter, Judy.
Years later, in the late 1960s and early 70s, Joanie, Judy (with definite ties to Raj's story) and Dawn, a girl from town, all end up at the commune near Three Pinnacles which took the place of the earlier group seeking wisdom from the stars. They've got a wild man, Coyote, who may or may not be the trickster. But he's definitely a snake in the garden figure. As with the other narratives, Dawn's story would make a complete novel on its own. Seeing her at different stages of her life only reinforces this feeling.
Another story is woven into the narrative of how Raj comes back that does not quite have the feel of a complete story but one that is among the most moving in the novel. Laila is a young woman who has come from Iraq to California and then to the Three Pinnacles area to live in a constructed village. It was built by the military to be a fake Iraq for troops on their way over. Laila's story has everything -- a haven of childhood bliss, fear, secrecy, war, tragic loss and escape without the sense of a fresh, new beginning. But within the narrative, she has a role to play that puts her own story in the background. On the surface, there is enough about Laila that her tale holds together.
However, Kunzru weaves hints into her story that show it could have been a sprawling epic on its own, telling the stories of Iraquis in various parts of society back home and here, as well as their life in a strange land and the people they encounter. When a soldier lets Laila wear night goggles to watch an evening training, the reality of what most of us have only seen on the news comes into clear focus.
Reading this section was like a sucker punch, especially with the pressures Laila also faces from her older relatives that have taken in her and her brother. They're strangers here in ways that not even the white men trying to fit in with the tribes they encounter in other parts of the book are. Jaz has something of the same problem. He doesn't feel he fits in anywhere any longer, certainly not with his traditional-bound family and not with Lisa, even though both feel grief and guilt over their son's disappearance.
The individual pieces in the novel, and the connection of various characters either looking beyond themselves for wisdom or having a search forced on them as they weave in and out of time, is worth reading. But the stories of strangers not at home in their worlds could have been an even stronger tale, one not relying on tricks or the trickster.
The novel is about both the trickster known as Coyote and the world of humans, those foible-filled creatures. In a way, Gods Without Men is as much a myth as novel, in that Coyote has set up and been caught in a trap in which humans are involved. During diferent eras, there is the inference that if one creature escapes, another must take its place (there is a similar story in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell that ended up being surprisingly poignant).
But that is the underpinning of the various stories contained within Kunzru's book. The main narratives are of a modern New York couple whose autistic son disappears for a few months while they are out West strolling around the Three Pinnacles rock formation out in the midst of the desert, a group in the late 1950s who seek wisdom from an alien race and a commune seeking wisdom from drugs as much as the aliens. There are connections between these stories, and a few others, that are not forced but which give few hints of how it all might tie together.
The main characters in all of these narratives are well-rounded portraits with compelling storylines. Jaz Matharu is a second-generation American who has given up Sikh ways and used his mad math skills to help develop a financial market software program, Walter, that would recognize 2001: A Space Odyssey's Hal as kin. His wife, Lisa, is a lapsed Jew who gives up her publishing job after it's apparent their son, Raj, suffers from serious autism. Kunzru is adept at letting the reader see how they both got to the ratty desert motel where they stay just before Raj disappears. Kunzru also does both characters the service of letting the reader see their lives from their individual points of view. Neither is the villian. Neither is without fault. And it would be fascinating to discover what happens to them after the novel closes. The sections where they are in limbo when Raj disappears are haunting.
Another child goes missing in the late 1950s. Joanie is searching for life to mean something when she discovers the writings of a scientific crackpot who thinks he is communicating with more intelligent beings from outer space. She becomes part of a group following him, living out in the desert near the Three Pinnacles. Joanie, an innocent, loses track of her young daughter, Judy.
Years later, in the late 1960s and early 70s, Joanie, Judy (with definite ties to Raj's story) and Dawn, a girl from town, all end up at the commune near Three Pinnacles which took the place of the earlier group seeking wisdom from the stars. They've got a wild man, Coyote, who may or may not be the trickster. But he's definitely a snake in the garden figure. As with the other narratives, Dawn's story would make a complete novel on its own. Seeing her at different stages of her life only reinforces this feeling.
Another story is woven into the narrative of how Raj comes back that does not quite have the feel of a complete story but one that is among the most moving in the novel. Laila is a young woman who has come from Iraq to California and then to the Three Pinnacles area to live in a constructed village. It was built by the military to be a fake Iraq for troops on their way over. Laila's story has everything -- a haven of childhood bliss, fear, secrecy, war, tragic loss and escape without the sense of a fresh, new beginning. But within the narrative, she has a role to play that puts her own story in the background. On the surface, there is enough about Laila that her tale holds together.
However, Kunzru weaves hints into her story that show it could have been a sprawling epic on its own, telling the stories of Iraquis in various parts of society back home and here, as well as their life in a strange land and the people they encounter. When a soldier lets Laila wear night goggles to watch an evening training, the reality of what most of us have only seen on the news comes into clear focus.
Reading this section was like a sucker punch, especially with the pressures Laila also faces from her older relatives that have taken in her and her brother. They're strangers here in ways that not even the white men trying to fit in with the tribes they encounter in other parts of the book are. Jaz has something of the same problem. He doesn't feel he fits in anywhere any longer, certainly not with his traditional-bound family and not with Lisa, even though both feel grief and guilt over their son's disappearance.
The individual pieces in the novel, and the connection of various characters either looking beyond themselves for wisdom or having a search forced on them as they weave in and out of time, is worth reading. But the stories of strangers not at home in their worlds could have been an even stronger tale, one not relying on tricks or the trickster.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
‘Every moment is a bardo, suspended between past and future. We are always in transition, slipping from one state to the next.’
The novel begins with a short story about Coyote who dies, over and over again, as his desert meth lab explodes every time he tries to rebuild it. It’s a sign of strange things to come.
In the next chapter, ‘1947’ we meet a former aircraft engineer named Schmidt and a rock formation in the California desert known as the Pinnacles. ‘First time Schmidt saw the Pinnacles he knew it was the place.’ By the end of the chapter, Schmidt is taken away in a flying saucer. Then, in the next chapter we are in 2008 with Nicky, an English rock star, who is in America to make a record in Los Angeles. He has driven into the desert for a break. The fourth chapter is the text of a letter dated 21 August 1778, describing an encounter at the Pinnacles between a friar and ‘an angel in the form of a man, who conversed with him and revealed certain mysteries’.
Back in 2008 again, where we meet Jaz and Lisa Matharu and their four year old son Raj, who is autistic. We know (from reading the book cover) that Raj disappears when his family visits the Pinnacles. But what, apart from the Pinnacles, connects these stories and those of the other characters that Mr Kunzru introduces? Raj is not the only missing child we encounter within this novel. In addition to the vanishing children, there are flying saucers, and a cult commune lives at the base of the Pinnacles, building a tower to communicate with the Ashtar Galactic Command.
What can this mean? Many of the characters we encounter are flawed, and are searching for something to make their lives complete. Children disappear, adults search – for the children, and for meaning in their own lives. Surely there are answers. Bit by bit, we see some of the connections. In the case of Raj, the media becomes part of the story, interpreting Raj’s disappearance and shaping the lives of his parents. And then Raj returns.
‘You are the hero of your own adventure.’
It took me a while to get into this novel and to remember who all of the characters were and where they fitted. The different narratives often belong to different periods in time and, for me at least, some characters made more impact than others. Some things are never explained, and readers will either accept them or not. The power of this book is not in understanding what is rationally inexplicable but in appreciating and perhaps accepting the characters with all of their emotional baggage. Lives and stories overlap, together with influence and impact. People come and go, some come back, and some of the damage done is repaired.
I picked this up expecting something quite different: a story about two parents and their autistic child who goes missing for a while. I found some of the other elements peripheral – until I focussed more on the fact (and different natures) of transition.
What does it all mean?
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The novel begins with a short story about Coyote who dies, over and over again, as his desert meth lab explodes every time he tries to rebuild it. It’s a sign of strange things to come.
In the next chapter, ‘1947’ we meet a former aircraft engineer named Schmidt and a rock formation in the California desert known as the Pinnacles. ‘First time Schmidt saw the Pinnacles he knew it was the place.’ By the end of the chapter, Schmidt is taken away in a flying saucer. Then, in the next chapter we are in 2008 with Nicky, an English rock star, who is in America to make a record in Los Angeles. He has driven into the desert for a break. The fourth chapter is the text of a letter dated 21 August 1778, describing an encounter at the Pinnacles between a friar and ‘an angel in the form of a man, who conversed with him and revealed certain mysteries’.
Back in 2008 again, where we meet Jaz and Lisa Matharu and their four year old son Raj, who is autistic. We know (from reading the book cover) that Raj disappears when his family visits the Pinnacles. But what, apart from the Pinnacles, connects these stories and those of the other characters that Mr Kunzru introduces? Raj is not the only missing child we encounter within this novel. In addition to the vanishing children, there are flying saucers, and a cult commune lives at the base of the Pinnacles, building a tower to communicate with the Ashtar Galactic Command.
What can this mean? Many of the characters we encounter are flawed, and are searching for something to make their lives complete. Children disappear, adults search – for the children, and for meaning in their own lives. Surely there are answers. Bit by bit, we see some of the connections. In the case of Raj, the media becomes part of the story, interpreting Raj’s disappearance and shaping the lives of his parents. And then Raj returns.
‘You are the hero of your own adventure.’
It took me a while to get into this novel and to remember who all of the characters were and where they fitted. The different narratives often belong to different periods in time and, for me at least, some characters made more impact than others. Some things are never explained, and readers will either accept them or not. The power of this book is not in understanding what is rationally inexplicable but in appreciating and perhaps accepting the characters with all of their emotional baggage. Lives and stories overlap, together with influence and impact. People come and go, some come back, and some of the damage done is repaired.
I picked this up expecting something quite different: a story about two parents and their autistic child who goes missing for a while. I found some of the other elements peripheral – until I focussed more on the fact (and different natures) of transition.
What does it all mean?
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
connergm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
esselleayy's review against another edition
4.0
Succeeds in being totally weird and a really good story. Not just weird for weird's sake.
luis0n7i's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
fdes_817's review against another edition
4.0
Really great book. Kunzru does an excellent job of drawing one into the narrative and teasing out complex emotional responses. It is a novel that is dedicated to ambiguity and remains committed to it to the very end. Very well done.