Sewer Gas and Electric (Public Works Trilogy): Amazon.co.uk: Matt Ruff: Books

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Synopsis

In the year 2023, as a crew of steelworkers work on the construction of a new Tower of Babel, the brainchild of billionaire Harry Gant, Harry's ex-wife Joan Fine, assisted by a resurrected Ayn Rand, sets out to solve the murder of a Wall Street takeover mogul.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.5 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Condon meets Kurt Vonnegut, 17 May 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sewer Gas and Electric (Public Works Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

At the risk of expressing a monority opinion, I laughed out loud a lot of times reading this novel--one of the funniest things I've ever read. It's dense plot-wise, a la Condon, with characters reminiscent of his earlier stuff. But it's also torque-y a la Vonnegut. Somehow, Ruff "sees" people at their most primitive levels and describes them to a tee.

Situations arise that I'd love to have been able to think up myself. No wait a minute--I ~did~ while I was in college. *That's* why I liked this so much! Ah--understanding from writing reviews. I knew they were useful for something.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Joan, Stop this crazy thing!, 2 Oct 2003

By

Patrick Burnett "penngos" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sewer Gas and Electric (Public Works Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Istanbul!

Applause, applause...

I just finished reading Matt Ruff's "Sewer, Gas and Electric" and I wish he were here before me so I could give him a one-man standing ovation.

I picked this book up in an airport bookstore, having looked at it several times before. This time, I was caught - I could not resist the ghost of Ayn Rand in a hurricane lamp or the mutant great white nicknamed "Meisterbrau". Five hours later I was breathlessly reading the last page.

So what's good about it? The writing is funny without being condescending or slapstick. The philosophy is interesting for those of us who walked in off the streets without having bought the "Atlas Shrugged" ticket. The characters are amazingly fleshed out, and even the villains have redeeming qualities and sympathetic motives.

I loved Kite (the immortal amputee), the secret history of Disneyland and the vain attempts to kill Meisterbrau, when every knows that the best way to kill a mutant shark is to introduce it to the workings of Ayn Rand.

If you like your humor broad, your books thoughtful and your day weird, this book ought to do the trick.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Ruff is an excellent writer but a poor philosopher., 24 Jun 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sewer Gas and Electric (Public Works Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Matt Ruff was obviously shaken from his eco-socialistic foundations upon reading Atlas Shrugged and decided (as so many people do) to defend his views against Ayn Rand's. He failed to do this effectively, succeeding only in pointing out the little inconsistencies and imperfections in the woman and her views. A better thinker would have met her with different arguments and I thought this was such a waste because the idea of the Rand Genie was brilliant. This is why I give the book three stars. Having said that, I must say that Ruff is an awesome writer. He has tremendous skill with words and an uncanny talent for plot imagination, especially from a comedic standpoint. [SPOILERS:] The guy's response to Meisterbrau's fin in the swimming pool and the scene where the world falls back onto Atlas' shoulders had me rolling on the floor with laughter. Worth a read just for the humor, but don't expect deep philosophical thought just because Ayn Rand's name appears on the back cover.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A mixture of Objectivism, environmentalism, and a lot else.
Ruff creates a story line in which they are miscible (as cogs in a plot, not with each other.)Everyone but "a reader from Tegucicalpa, Honduras" (A sadistic irrational... Read more

Published on 28 Aug 1999