Having read a few of Johnson’s work at this point, I have to say that his power remains mostly in his ability to conduct a scene, and much less so in his stringing together of an entirely satisfying and progressive plot/narrative. I’ve been let down in that latter aspect in both Tree of Smoke and Jesus’s Son. Still, though, the scenes themselves are so undeniably powerful as to almost negate that other weakness.

A post-apocalyptic allegory that is so confusing and esoteric it must be literary!

Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcT_-...

I didn't love this book, although I did sort of like the characters and the world that Johnson created. I think I know where Johnson was trying to go, but he never really got there. The book just fell flat and felt forced. The ending, I think, was the worst part. Just as the plot picked up and I started to really give a damn about any of the characters, the book ended. I will say that the parts about Mr. Cheung's grandmother were fantastic, and the section where Cheung thinks they have found the book with the answers in it had some nice sections. Most of the parts with Fiskadoro were just a little too nonsensical for me. I get that Johnson is being lyrical, but it's just a little too much here.

"Δεν έχω οικογένεια να μιλήσει για μένα"

All the greats try it, the post-apocalyptic novel. Margaret Atwood has her Madaddam galaxy. Cormac McCarthy has his Road. Even Cunningham showed us some futuristic love in "Specimen Days." Etc.

But Johnson, an expert of the short story, does something extraordinary. If you didn't know this for the dystopian book it is supposed to be, it could pass for historical fic. The details are so refined, the loss of language is too real. Playing with different forms of existence, stasis, limbo, Fiskadoro takes its rightful place among those aforementioned End of Days literary efforts.

This is a strange book! Sometimes delightfully strange. Difficult for me to rate.

This is a novel I would put in the "speculative fiction" category, with qualifications. It is solidly within the post-apocalyptic genre, but, for me at least, there is a lack of "speculation" on what might make a "better world" after we blow it up. The buddhist side of me liked the way he portrayed certain aspects of consciousness, and the weaving of the post-Vietnam War escape tale with the post-nuclear holocaust tale, including a bardo like final scene. The anarchist side of me wanted more engagement with potential solutions to the problems that lead to nuclear apocalypse. If you're willing to settle for well-written, darkly descriptive imagining of what might happen on the other side of catastrophe, then you'll enjoy this book.

Post civilization in the Florida Keys during the "time of daze"

Ganska så bra klassisk dystopi. Gillade upplägget och språket men det blev inte någon jättestor favorit.

Humanity must totally forget the past to begin anew. I can dig that.