[HDY]⇒ Read Gratis Free Live Free Gene Wolfe 9780312868369 Books

Free Live Free Gene Wolfe 9780312868369 Books

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Free Live Free Gene Wolfe 9780312868369 Books

Sometimes I think Gene Wolfe was challenged as a young author to see if he could write just about anything, and then set about for the rest of his career attempting to prove that's possible, or he often takes bets with people who believe he can't make a functioning plot out of whatever bizarre fragment they decide to throw his way. As a SF author his books tend to veer toward allusive fantasy, where it seems like magic and mysticism are happening just in the periphery but there's also a more concrete underpinning, or simply more than one method of perceiving things.

That tendency works wonders when he's actually writing straight out SF, because that combination of evasive tone and elusive explanations is quite the heady brew for those so inclined, while others may be frustrated that he's forcing you to read the book as if looking through slanted funhouse mirrors (or, even more likely, the mirrors are telling you true and its what they're showing that's skewed) . . . however, when he's not dabbling in exhilaratingly confusing science-fiction, his attempts at playing it straight often have more mixed results, either because the mix is a bit more uneasy the closer it gets to our reality, or that he simply operates better in settings that aren't quite here.

This novel starts out with four very different people living for free in a rundown apartment building run by an old man, Benjamin Free. Each of them has different reasons for being down on their luck and even with the building being slated for demolition very soon, it's still the best option any of them has had for a while. But when they finally get kicked out of the building, the old guy disappears in the midst of the chaos and, lacking anything better to do, the four of them, separately and together, attempt to figure out where he went and what secrets it was that he was alluding to.

With characters like a salesman with one eye, a private detective without a license, a gypsy woman who insists on being called Madame Serpentina (if she lets you call her anything at all), and an overweight prostitute named Candy (and in case you think I'm being unfair, that's pretty much exactly how the book describes her repeatedly) all roaming around fairly quirky neighborhoods of Chicago engaged in various quests that don't seem to go anywhere at all, it's fair to think that Wolfe is writing some kind of parody of post-modern novels, with a lot of the played-straight nuttiness that hints at but never quite lapses into camp suggesting a second cousin of some of the wackier moments of a Thomas Pynchon novel. with an undercurrent of dark humor that oddly makes it feel more realistic as they separate and come back together again, believing they are pursuing their own agenda when they always wind up back on the same streamlined track. In the meantime it becomes clear that there is a larger plot going on around them so that most of their bizarre travails are indeed possessed of some purpose, even if that purpose is abundantly not clear.

Along the way the novel careens through several setpieces that feel grounded in some place just sideways of reality, a seedy hotel, a very strange asylum, often times giving it the impression that Wolfe is just using the book as a clearinghouse for all the scenes that he couldn't find a place for in his other novels (or make an entire novel out of), and you may find yourself asking more than once, "just where the heck is he going with this." Where it succeeds, and what helped the book maintain my interest, was his gift with setting a mood and having the characters feel fully formed even in their strangest moments . . . he has a knack here for crafting dialogue that feels very real even in the midst of very strange surroundings, so that even the weirdest scenes come across as real people existing in a slightly blurred reality, so that instead of coming across as cartoons, the four main characters hint at lives before they encountered each other, and plan they have for the future, so that even scenes where one character decides right in the middle of the plot to make plans for a date with someone he's met through an ad feel natural and not just the author vamping.

Unfortunately, and this is hard to write, he muffs it with the ending, attempting something that is too concrete to be believed, with an explanation coming entirely out of left field (it's possible that a careful rereading will make the ending seem less surprising, but there don't seem to be that many hints . . . for the record, I thought Ben Free was an alien and I was wrong) that seems more concocted to give readers the least likely outcome than anything that resembles a logical extension of where we've come before. It's not an "everything you know is wrong" as much as "oh by the way for the entire story nobody was wearing pants" and that winds up being the key fact that ties everything together. Not only is the explanation a "wha?" moment but the resolution that follows muddles exactly what was at stake and what makes these people so special and what it is they have to gain or lose. In a different setting it might have worked and come across as more poetic or metaphorical but here it just feels like he's trying too hard to be surprising, and instead of opening the world up so that we're forced to consider it anew, it feels almost like a cheat, a painted backdrop draped over a fairly normal scene in an effort to convince us that real magic is occurring, even when we can still smell the paint.


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Free Live Free Gene Wolfe 9780312868369 Books Reviews

This is probably the best (or at least my personal favorite) of the four Wolfe novels from the eighties set in the modern, "real" world. (The others being "There Are Doors", "Castleview", and "Pandora, by Holly Hollander") Full of funny, interesting, complex characters, and powered by an intriguing story. It is fairly complicated, so pay close attention!
Wolfe's fans probably admire most the books in which he demonstrates his ability to create believable (and yet unbelievably complex) fictional settings. In this novel, Wolfe has placed the strange events of his plotline right in the middle of a run-down and rather seedy neighborhood in Chicago, with forays into a nearby luxury hotel and an insane asylum. It's remarkable how well this works. Wolfe demonstrates that he's just as good at listening to how people actually talk to each other in the real world as he is at imagining how they would talk in particularly baroque and distant futures. The conversations between the many characters who make up this book are its biggest pleasure. It's pointless, however, to attempt to explain why the conversations leave such a lasting impression in the mind, because the dialogue derives its effectiveness from the way that it reveals the psyches of some extremely well-drawn characters. If you don't know the characters, you can't understand the appeal. A part of it is that the main characters are all, in one way or another, the type of people that our culture regards as losers. Wolfe manages to make you root for them, but not by idealizing them. Instead, he shows you all of their many flaws...and pretty serious flaws they are, from an ethical viewpoint. Then he shows you their small virtues and talents. And then you begin to realize how hard they have to struggle, because of their poverty, just to get through life. This is a remarkable science-fiction novel for a lot of reasons, but mainly for being populated with protagonists who are neither fearless heroes nor nihilistic violent cretins.
I loved the New Sun books, so immediately looked for more Gene Wolfe books to read. This book was torment to read. I kept thinking there would be something to glean from each chapter, but in reality, there was very little of anything of note. The last two chapters finally got to the point. I don't want to give away any of the plot, so will just leave it at that. He could have spent much more time filling out the timeline and less time with chatter between bumbling insignificant pedestrians.
Just as an FYI to anyone looking to buy the kindle version of this book, you should be aware that several pages are missing from the penultimate chapter. This is obviously a little bit of a big deal! So heads up, hopefully they will sort this out.
In the novel, a group of four down on their luck strangers answer an add and soon move in with the eccentric elderly owner, Ben Free, of a house that is to be knocked down in just a few days. His only requirement of them is that they help him to try to delay the destruction of the house. From there, the story unfolds...

I'm not quite sure how to set about reviewing this book. On the one hand, the portrayal of the actions and motivations of the main characters involved was very good. Quite a few scenes were downright hilarious. The ending was somewhat of a surprise (a rarity) - but then, I had been warned of that before reading the book. Yet, somehow, the book as a whole seemed like something was somewhat lacking. I think that the reason for this feeling is my extremely high expectations from anything that Wolfe writes.

I would still recommend this book, as it is a good read. But if you have yet to read anything else of Wolfe's I would suggest Peace, the "New Sun" series, or The Fifth Head of Cerberus.
Sometimes I think Gene Wolfe was challenged as a young author to see if he could write just about anything, and then set about for the rest of his career attempting to prove that's possible, or he often takes bets with people who believe he can't make a functioning plot out of whatever bizarre fragment they decide to throw his way. As a SF author his books tend to veer toward allusive fantasy, where it seems like magic and mysticism are happening just in the periphery but there's also a more concrete underpinning, or simply more than one method of perceiving things.

That tendency works wonders when he's actually writing straight out SF, because that combination of evasive tone and elusive explanations is quite the heady brew for those so inclined, while others may be frustrated that he's forcing you to read the book as if looking through slanted funhouse mirrors (or, even more likely, the mirrors are telling you true and its what they're showing that's skewed) . . . however, when he's not dabbling in exhilaratingly confusing science-fiction, his attempts at playing it straight often have more mixed results, either because the mix is a bit more uneasy the closer it gets to our reality, or that he simply operates better in settings that aren't quite here.

This novel starts out with four very different people living for free in a rundown apartment building run by an old man, Benjamin Free. Each of them has different reasons for being down on their luck and even with the building being slated for demolition very soon, it's still the best option any of them has had for a while. But when they finally get kicked out of the building, the old guy disappears in the midst of the chaos and, lacking anything better to do, the four of them, separately and together, attempt to figure out where he went and what secrets it was that he was alluding to.

With characters like a salesman with one eye, a private detective without a license, a gypsy woman who insists on being called Madame Serpentina (if she lets you call her anything at all), and an overweight prostitute named Candy (and in case you think I'm being unfair, that's pretty much exactly how the book describes her repeatedly) all roaming around fairly quirky neighborhoods of Chicago engaged in various quests that don't seem to go anywhere at all, it's fair to think that Wolfe is writing some kind of parody of post-modern novels, with a lot of the played-straight nuttiness that hints at but never quite lapses into camp suggesting a second cousin of some of the wackier moments of a Thomas Pynchon novel. with an undercurrent of dark humor that oddly makes it feel more realistic as they separate and come back together again, believing they are pursuing their own agenda when they always wind up back on the same streamlined track. In the meantime it becomes clear that there is a larger plot going on around them so that most of their bizarre travails are indeed possessed of some purpose, even if that purpose is abundantly not clear.

Along the way the novel careens through several setpieces that feel grounded in some place just sideways of reality, a seedy hotel, a very strange asylum, often times giving it the impression that Wolfe is just using the book as a clearinghouse for all the scenes that he couldn't find a place for in his other novels (or make an entire novel out of), and you may find yourself asking more than once, "just where the heck is he going with this." Where it succeeds, and what helped the book maintain my interest, was his gift with setting a mood and having the characters feel fully formed even in their strangest moments . . . he has a knack here for crafting dialogue that feels very real even in the midst of very strange surroundings, so that even the weirdest scenes come across as real people existing in a slightly blurred reality, so that instead of coming across as cartoons, the four main characters hint at lives before they encountered each other, and plan they have for the future, so that even scenes where one character decides right in the middle of the plot to make plans for a date with someone he's met through an ad feel natural and not just the author vamping.

Unfortunately, and this is hard to write, he muffs it with the ending, attempting something that is too concrete to be believed, with an explanation coming entirely out of left field (it's possible that a careful rereading will make the ending seem less surprising, but there don't seem to be that many hints . . . for the record, I thought Ben Free was an alien and I was wrong) that seems more concocted to give readers the least likely outcome than anything that resembles a logical extension of where we've come before. It's not an "everything you know is wrong" as much as "oh by the way for the entire story nobody was wearing pants" and that winds up being the key fact that ties everything together. Not only is the explanation a "wha?" moment but the resolution that follows muddles exactly what was at stake and what makes these people so special and what it is they have to gain or lose. In a different setting it might have worked and come across as more poetic or metaphorical but here it just feels like he's trying too hard to be surprising, and instead of opening the world up so that we're forced to consider it anew, it feels almost like a cheat, a painted backdrop draped over a fairly normal scene in an effort to convince us that real magic is occurring, even when we can still smell the paint.