The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
Written by Jonathan Lethem
Narrated by Graham Winton and Kevin R. Free
4/5
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About this audiobook
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem is the author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, as well as more recent bestsellers, The Feral Detective and The Arrest. Several of his novels have been made into major movies and his shorter works can often be found in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and other distinguished venues. One of the MacArthur “Genius” grant winners, Lethem is well-known and widely respected for his vivid literary style, sardonic humor, and deep understanding of American culture.
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Reviews for The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
8 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WOW! Holy smokes, this is an interesting read.
I enjoyed it but luckily my theory panned about about who the villain ones. Intense! - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A mediocre collection of short stories. The first one was almost good, until it took a turn for the predictable. The rest were mostly forgettable. Lethem is capable of writing good short fiction, but he sure didn’t put any of them in this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wall of the Eye, The Wall of the Sky contains eight short stories by Jonathan Letham:The Happy ManVanilla DunkLight and the SuffererForever, Said the DuckFive FucksThe Hardened CriminalsSleepy PeopleOut of all of the stories in this collection, I found The Happy Man to be not only the most effective, but the most emotionally impactful, followed closely by The Hardened Criminals. Both stories involve a fractured father/son relationship that is believable and nuanced, and have no problem communicating the devastation and despair of the characters to the reader; the ending to The Happy Man stayed with me for quite a few days after reading. Also, science fiction or fantastical elements in both of these stories, while comical or ludicrous on the surface, are an integral part of the narrative, both metaphorically and literally.Light and the Sufferer is also a serious story involving familial relationships, but the science fiction element is less of a contributing factor to the the main actions in the story itself, and in my opinion the story would be equally as strong if it were to be removed altogether.Five Fucks and Sleepy People are more lighthearted, humorous additions to the collection. Just as enjoyable, if on a different level. Five Fucks actually made me laugh out loud at one point. Good stuff.Vanilla Dunk is a decent read, but seeing as how it is primarily about basketball - a subject I have no interest in or knowledge of - it was a little lost on me.Forever, Said the Duck was my least favorite of the bunch, and I think it mainly falls flat because it feels somewhat out of place. While the science fiction elements of the rest of the collection are either incidental to or a catalyst for the overriding story, in this one the science fiction element takes center stage as the focus, setting, and even character of the piece. It's a shift in tone that throws the entire collection slightly off kilter, but while it is the weakest story of the bunch thematically, it is not necessarily bad, just different.Overall, this is an excellent collection of works by Letham, full of human frailty and the overwhelming struggle against emotional distance. I would hesitate to classify this collection as Science-Fiction, as I feel that most of the stories manage to transcend the genre, but I guess when it's this good, it doesn't matter what you call it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This collection of short stories from Berkeley-by-way-of-Brooklyn writer Jonathan Lethem explores the same sort of absurdist science fiction landscape as his novel Amnesia Moon. These seven pieces show the depth and breadth of Lethem’s creativity as he explores the outer reaches of this genre.The stories that were previously printed in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine are among the standouts in this collection and speak both to the editor’s catholic tastes and Lethem’s ability to inhabit vastly different worlds and report back with chilling clarity.The Happy Man, the lead off tale of a guy who spends half his time in hell and the other half trying to make up with his increasingly distant wife and troubled teenage son, sets the tone for the volume. In this troubling story, the reappearance of a ne’er-do-well uncle in his Earth-bound life begins to draw the two worlds into closer proximity. Lethem telegraphs his final blow but it is devastating all the same. This story stays with the reader and reveals the barely-disguised malice in our classic fairy tales.Vanilla Dunk, is a slightly futuristic story of professional basketball in a time where the sport is in an advanced state of atrophy and has begun to consume itself like a snake eating its own tail. Powered exosuits give players the sampled skills of the greatest athletes of all time, turning the game into a live fantasy league.Lethem uses the post-sport spectacle to probe the issues of race (when a white hotshot draws the much-vaunted skills of Michael Jordan) and fame like a tongue returning to the socket of a broken tooth. This is quite a different story than The Happy Man and it’s a testament to Lethem’s deft touch that one doesn’t need an understanding, or fondness for that matter, of basketball to enjoy it.Not every story in The Wall of the Eye is a slam dunk, but the penultimate tale, The Hardened Criminals, shows what an incredible imagination Lethem possesses. To give away the story’s main conceit would be a crime in and of itself, but it ends up being a chilling indictment of the prison industry and the way that it is set up to strip away the humanity of those stupid, crazy, or unlucky enough to fall under its purview. Lethem is a prolific novelist as well as short story writer and at times his prose reads dangerously close to poetry as in this introduction of the prison in The Hardened Criminals: The prison was an accomplishment, a monument to human ingenuity, like a dam or an aircraft carrier. At the same time the prison was a disaster, something imposed by nature on the helpless city, a pit gouged by a meteorite, or a forest-fire scar.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark and devious, insightful and enthralling. My favorite story is Hardened Criminals. I think it is a brilliant way to deter crime.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Each story was completely different except for one aspect; Lethem's penchant for plunging the reader deep into the story and making you swim for the surface. The first few pages of each one baffled me as to what was happening, but then slowly, by inches, he reveals what is going on. Imagination like this is just amazing to me. I can almost visualize how he came up with the story for Hardened Criminals. Shockingly literal, but with heart, it's unlike anything I've ever read. As are the rest of the stories - Five Fucks is surreal and warped. As is Forever, Said the Duck. Bizarre doesn't even begin to describe these. The Happy Man is the most disturbing of them all - it focuses on a man who is dead, but revived so he can continue to support his family. However, he's not always there. Sometimes he's transported to his own private Hell, in which he is presided over as a small boy by The Happy Man, a rapist whose rape sets him free into his life again. A double edge sword he must endure to visit with his wife and son. The resolution of this brings up more questions than it answers and made me think a while after reading it. Very well done.I cannot be sure that his use of language is deliberate or just forgetful and kind of sloppy. The lack of continuity in use of words and style bugged me at first, but I chalked it up to style and let it go. Let it take me. And it did. Everyone on the plane disappeared while I swam up through each story to air and daylight.