Chronic City Review @ Un:Bound

In between all the horror watching I have manage to do other things, a few of which I'll talk about next month when we get back to more personal writing.  In the meantime, over at Un:Bound I share my thoughts on the new novel by Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City.

Read the exerpt below, and find the full reivew over at Un:Bound.

Here's a short list of things Jonathan Lethem's new novel Chronic City is about: a 2-story tall tiger secretly demolishing buildings, a bizarre cloud that smells like chocolate to some, to others it doesn't smell at all, but comes across as a piercing sound originating within their ears. It's about a virtual world, part World of Warcraft and part Second Life and of the virtual treasure that has the power to transform your mind. It's also about how these virtual realities may not be virtual at all, and in fact it is our world that's the virtual one.

It's also about the people caught up in these things - specifically, three people. Perkus Tooth, former voice of the city and paranoid conspiracist, determined to prove between tokes of weed that not only is Marlon Brando still alive but is the savior of the city. Richard Abneg, aide to the mayor and best by eagles who live outside his apartment window, who rails against the cultured elite of the city even as he seduces and is seduced by one of its own. And Chase Insteadman, former child star and current conversation piece, who drifts in and out of both worlds, not realizing he's playing a bigger part than he ever imagined.