Gun, with Occasional Music

#120
Title: Gun, with Occasional Music
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Publisher: Tor
Year: 1994
Genre: science fiction, mystery
262 pages

It has a kangaroo walking into a bar, see? What's not to like? This was Lethem's first novel and it's just as confident and sharp as the rest. A dystopian noir detective novel of the future, Gun, with Occasional Music hits its tone well and sustains it evenly throughout. Some detail (including the occasional music of the title) is not as well-developed as I'd have liked. The plot develops in the Fahrenheit 451-A Scanner Darkly range, plus the expected Chandler-Hammett twists and complications. The final conceit is a little simplistic and not nearly as effective as the narrator (and perhaps author) seem to think, but if that doesn't bother readers of McCarthy's The Road, neither should it trouble Lethem's fans. If you're planning to read both, read The Yiddish Policeman's Union before this; otherwise, Chabon will be too depressing by comparison.