As I finish reading Chronic City, I wonder how Jonathan Lethem, whose first book Gun With Occasional Music was pure science fiction, has moved so far away from it. He seems to be the anti Michael Chabon, who has moved from pure fiction to genre work. So, I thought I’d go back over his books and see where he switched from genre writing to mainstream fiction.

As I mentioned, Lethem’s first book was Gun With Occasional Music ascience-fiction detective story that used karma pointsas a sort of societal approval. If your karma dropped too low, you were sent to the deep freeze (literal frozen hibernation). Conrad Metcalf is the detective whose simple investigation turns into a murder case and is on the run from an incompetent hitman (hit kangaroo really) and the Inquisitors investigating the murder who have the power to take away karma points. It’s a wonderful debut with a kooky story, interesting characters and a interesting voice.


His second book Amnesia Moon is a pastiche of Philip K. Dick stories about a dreamer in a post apocalyptic world.The main character goes by several names but is mainly known as Chaos. Chaos is a powerful dreamer who is affected by the local leader Kellog. So Chaos sets out on a journey across post-apocalyptic America to find out what actually cause the apocalypse and who he really is. This book is a cross between Philip K Dick and Hunter S Thompson, a drugged out road trip to determine reality.

As She Climbed Across the Table was Lethem’s next book. This book deals with a romance, quantum physics and a void which might be alive.  Alice and Philip are an academic couple in love. Until Alice starts interacting with a strange void in the physics lab and starts having more of a relationship with the aptly named Lack than with Philip. As Philip tries to woo Alice back, he starts getting more involved with the Lack. This book is part science fiction and part mainstream fiction. This novel starts moving Lethem toward mainstream fiction.

After As She Climbed Across the Table, Lethem moves to another planet in Girl in Landscape. This time we start with another post-apocalyptic Earth and the family of Pella Marsh is migrating to the Planet of the Archbuilders. The book is set in a science-fiction setting, but it’s really the story of a young girl losing her mother and growing into woman hood. With this novel, Lethem moved back towards a more science-fiction setting, but the book’s plot is more mainstream.

Lethem’s following books are solidly mainstream novels and I’ll cover them in part 2.