| Author: |
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Robert Kelly
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| Title: |
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The Book from the Sky |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
| Recommended: |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Paperback |
| Pages: |
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240 |
| Date: |
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2008-09-30 |
| ISBN: |
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1556437552 |
| Publisher: |
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North Atlantic Books |
| Weight: |
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1.06 pounds |
| Size: |
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8.78 x 0.63 x 5.98 inches |
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| Previous moochers: |
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| Description: |
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Product Description
“I’m on my way back. I was one of the first they took away.” So begins Robert Kelly’s remarkable science fiction novel about a literally divided self. “I” is Billy, the book’s protagonist, a boy who is captured by a group of aliens who take him to a cave and meticulously, if seemingly by caprice, remove his “young pure smokeless lungs” and other internal organs to replace them with two gray squirrels, a live hawk, a shoe, and a variety of other bizarre objects. Billy’s body and mind are spun off into a curious twin, one whose adventures Billy is forced by his captors to watch and try to make sense of—not a simple task when he sees his doppelgänger stealing everything from him: body, name, family, his beloved Eileen. Complicating matters, and forcing Billy deeper into his ironic journey of self, is a mysterious pamphlet called “The Book from the Sky,” written by what may be yet another variation of Billy himself, Brother William. This stunningly imaginative work, echoing the late novels of Iris Murdoch and the fantasies of Robert Charles Wilson and Jonathan Stroud while remaining inimitably Kelly’s own, offers adventurous readers a “cabinet of wonders” not unlike the body of his beleaguered young hero.
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| Reviews: |
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Psybre (USA: IA) (2008/08/25):
Some spoilers below ***
Humanist and poetic, I greatly enjoyed pages 20 through 220 (of about 240). The initial pages, as a preface, seemed impossible to understand, but made sense when the book was complete. The majority of the book that explored human feelings (especially desire) and self-knowledge was interesting to me, some of it fascinating. As the book approached the end, the "humanist" feel of the writing was replaced with a new-age/christian feel and I strongly feared this a harbinger of a christ/sacrificial ending. Most of the novel was beautifully written. I was absolutely disappointed with the ending of the book; for only then was I convinced that I had read a book whose messages were so mixed and contradictory, that it had no message for me. Two stars (out of five) for inspired descriptions on several pages. I disagree with a former librarything reviewer that the book is worth reading by its literary merit. Leave the book alone unless you feel you have to read it or like being confused and manipulated as a reader.
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/1556437552 |
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