Lethem, Jonathan. The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye: stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1998.
I like that way Nancy Pearl describes Lethem’s style of writing. Basically she says (in Book Lust) you never get the same book twice. Even within his short stories in The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye you don’t get the same short story twice. Nothing is the same. Even the style of writing is different. Like a box of chocolates with only one candy containing chocolate…
Here’s a list of the short stories:
- The Happy Man ~ a weird sort of deal-with-the-devil story about a man who is dead, but isn’t.
- Vanilla Drunk ~ a story that mentions Michael Jordan over 40 times.
- Light and the Sufferer ~ brothers, an alien, drugs and New York City. What’s not to love?
- Forever, Said the Duck ~ a virtual party where virtually no one is who they say they are.
- Five Fukcs ~ I have no idea how to describe this story. It’s all about getting screwed over…
- The Hardened Criminal ~ a very strange story about a man who ends up in the same prison cell as his father…only his father is built into the cement wall.
- Sleepy People ~ there is a group of people who sleep through anything…including sex.
Because of Lethem’s copyright statement I am not going to quote favorite lines (and yes, I had a few). Just leave it that I liked the entire book (even though I would have liked more description about the Sufferer from “Light and the Sufferer”).
BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called, “Jonathan Lethem: Too Good To Miss” (p 145).
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