Gun, with Occasional Music

By: Jonathan Lethem

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems - not the least of which are the rabbit in his waiting room and the trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is an ominous place where evolved animals function as members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage.

In this brave new world, Metcalf has been shadowing the wife of an affluent doctor, perhaps falling a little in love with her at the same time. But when the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in the crossfire in a futuristic world that is both funny - and not so funny.

©1994 Jonathan Lethem (P)2009 BBC Audio

Critic reviews

"This colorful first novel is a fast and lively read, full of humorous visions and outlandish predicaments." ( Publishers Weekly)
"[A] sparkling pastiche of Chandleresque detective fiction displaced to an almost comical postmodern landscape." ( Booklist)
"Marries Chandler's style and Philip K. Dick's vision...an audaciously assured first novel." ( Newsweek)

A film noir set in "1984"

I really enjoyed this book, although it's definitely not for everyone. It's a detective story (very Bogart) set in a world with much like Orwell's "1984". I loved it. The narrator is great!

It’s quirky

But it’s a keeper. Not just a spoof, or that horror, the sci fi comedy. More like an exploration of the Marlowe mythos. It has humor but doesn’t beat you over the head with it. It’s read well, too.

Well, it was certainly interesting...

Any additional comments?

...although, I'm not sure that I would say that it was good. Actually, I think the author may have written this book on a dare. At its heart, the book is a hard-boiled detective story. However, the author seems to go out of his way to insert the most bizarre and unbelievable events and characters into the story for no obvious purpose. As a result, his vision of the future often seems to be more of a joke on the reader than an actual place.

For example, at one point the protagonist goes to visit another detective who had previously done some work on the case. Only the other detective is a monkey. No particular reason. It doesn't really add anything to the story. The detective is just a monkey.

Maybe I'm missing the inner meaning of all the strangeness, but I doubt it. In the end, the plot was fine and characters were fine, but all the goofiness was just distracting.

Raymond Chandler for the twenty-second century, warts and all.

This book does a masterful job of channeling what made the greats of the hard-boiled genre great, while also bringing something of its own in its unconventional, unsettling near-future setting. The reading is outstanding as well. I came to this book from Lethem's later novel Motherless Brooklyn, and, for anyone else in the same position, I can say that much of what makes Motherless Brooklyn such a success is fully at work here. The sole caveat is that the deep love for place in Lionel Esrogg's Brooklyn does not come through as clearly for John Metcalf's Oakland - or may just have been lost on me.

Need a prequel and sequel

If you could sum up Gun, with Occasional Music in three words, what would they be?

Hammet , Drugs and a Kangaroo

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Quaint amusing plot introducing science gone Wrong mutated animal characters it was extremely enjoyable listening to the wonderfully drawn caricatures of the inhabitants of this bay area bizarre family. It was not a story glorifying drugs but rather a scene of the future of psychopharmacology industry It was very well done and it's a shame that it's still not in a series run

Which character – as performed by Nick Sullivan – was your favorite?

The detective, the kangaroo ,the baby heads ,the gorilla and every last other one of the players

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was in shock and awe at how close this came to my InVisioning of the future

Any additional comments?

Laythan should rearrange his priorities and write this in full series of fun and laughter

Ramand Chandler in the 22nd century

If you could sum up Gun, with Occasional Music in three words, what would they be?

Classic Private eye story set in a future where animals have been evolved into creatures that speak and do tasks that humans won't do any more.

What did you like best about this story?

How our hero Conrad Metcalf , not only deals with problems but with his addictions to legal drugs That is a part of the story and how he has his own personal blend.

Which character – as performed by Nick Sullivan – was your favorite?

Conrad Metcalf, he really pulled off all the character voices but you really felt Metcalf's angst.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A few laughs and some extreme reactions to some brutal murders but all in all a really good story. Well worth what I paid for it. (got on sale and would still recommend) excellent urban future fantasy.

Any additional comments?

SPOILER; I would love to see a second book about this character after he get's out of the freeze, in the future.......I hope.

Liked it, except for mild sexism

I was overlooking the misogyny because it was mild and sporadic, but at some point I was too tired of it to finish the story. The narrator was great. A female editor could have removed that crap.

The ending was good the beginning... not so much

The ending was so good you'd almost forget the slog that you had to get through in the beginning.

Hard boiled detective in crazy town

Jonathan Lethem's Gun, with Occasional Music is a strange listen or at least cartoonish. The main character is a private eye or 'inquisitor' as detectives and other law enforcement personnel are known by. There's been a murder and a frame-up that no one other than the PI and the 'framee' care about. The strangeness comes from the universe in which the story takes place. While it has that Raymond Chandler feel, there is the added element of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Various animal species have been 'uplifted' to become functional members of society such as sheep and kangaroos. Then there is a form of evolved humans called 'babyheads' that retain a juvenile appearance, but function like adults. There are no police, but Inquisitors that function like Judge Dredds. Everyone has a 'karma' score which when it goes to zero, you go into the deep freeze for a while and the inquisitors can deduct on the spot and everyone is on some sort of drug therapy (Addictol, Acceptol, etc.) The plot is your basic hardboiled PI tale, although the 'hero' takes six years to solve the case due to a freeze period himself.

Lethem does a decent job of combining a classic detective story with all these other cartoonish elements. The universe in which all this takes place, however, makes no sense whatsoever and there's no attempt to offer an explanation. In fact, after the six year freeze, the society seems to have further declined along the lines of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin to the point where most people live on Forgettol and have been discouraged from ever asking questions. There's also a nerve swapping routine and the hero (male) spends the story with female sexual nerves due to a former girlfriend who left without re-swapping. It's unclear how this society can even exist. As far as the resolution of the original crime mystery, it all comes down to a bad dating app experience.

The narration is well done, with decent character distinction, including the uplifted creatures. The mood does effectively capture that necessary film noir feel for the plot.

Entertaining

I wrote this review because I thought the other review was a little harsh. Entertaining book in the Sc-Fi genre. Didn't think the reader did as bad a job as in the previous review.