Vernon Subutex 1: A Novel

If you've read much of Max Gladstone, in particular his Craft sequence, you'll find the Vernon Subutex trilogy quite familiar. If there's influence here, I imagine it's probably from her to him, and this might just be genre overlap.Regardless of genre, these are both rather large and quite successful pieces of multivolume character fiction, in which descriptions are rich and character is always the best part of the thing described.Probably the best thing to say about VS is that it's a classic modernist novel, and if you read it as one you will not be disappointed.

If you were or are a fan of 1990s rock culture, this is the book for you. The characters are pathetic losers for the most part, who assert their alienation from all things uncool as if they alone hold the keys to the kingdom of the underground, where what supposedly matters to them is long ago passe. Yet they find ways to exploit and comfort each other simultaneously, while actively engaged in self-loathing and disgust toward one another. The prime character is not likable, and one turns the page with a sort of tabloid expectation for what comes next. The translation is adequate, though much of the ennui is certainly more entertaining in French, since the French are the world's most earnest and pathetic complainers. Still, highly recommended for anyone who will appreciate the references to many bands in what has become the last stand of rock and roll. Recommended.

Ok, it you find the dissolute wanderings of a homeless bum interesting, you will love this book. I understand it was popular in France . . . but having been to France several times, I would say that French taste in literature is very different from American. I struggled to finish the book, but I kept hoping that at some point it would become--interesting? insightful regarding the human condition? funny? philosophical? I was disappointed on all counts.

For people in their 40s it is like going back to one's youth. I enjoy the book completely! All these problems are so familiar :)