The Alex Chilton Factor

[threemonkeys]

The cover of Jonathan Lethem's Gun With Occasional Music has a kangaroo on it. It is one of my favourite book covers ever. The story is pretty cool too. Lethem's You Don't Love Me Yet has a kangaroo on it too. That cover is nothing special - neither is the book. I struggled through it thinking that some twist would transform it away from the boring and banal. Lethem has managed this trick before but not this time. In fact I think the thing is that he has tried too hard this time. The book just never lifts off. Of course it could be the lack of SF elements in it, but I don't think so - Lethem has always flirted around the boundaries of "serious" literature and SF to great advantage in the past. Waste of a perfectly good kangaroo if you ask me.