- Hardcover: 461 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press (1 Jan 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0871136414
- ISBN-13: 978-0871136411
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 693,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
As the world's wealthiest man, Harry Gant, erects a sky-high building, bizarre life forms wage a war in the city's ever-expanding sewer systems, led by Joan Fine, Gant's ex-wife, who is working incognito as a heroic commando.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
Format: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.
Format: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
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
Intense
This is one of the first books where I really wanted the "heroes" (Dufresne, Jane, etc.) to die. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 1999
Readable
Hey Matt, did you go to Stuyvesant High School? And did you have Mr. McCourt as an English teacher? Let me know, dude.
Published on 4 Aug 1999
Some of The Sum of Its Parts
(Spoilers, beware!) Matt Ruff spins an almost Dickensonian texture in his futuristic views of New York, in his eccentric people, his monstrous superskyscrapers, his evil computer... Read more
Published on 22 Mar 1999
Goofy Entertainment
Recipe: Start with parody, stir in madcap; search the surreal cupboard, add everything plus the kitchen sink; light on the spices, you don't want much depth; toss... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 1999
A mad-cap joy ride through the future
Although derivative of Stephenson and others who use the future to wildly satirize the present, Matt Ruff's "Gas, Sewer, Electic" is a lot of fun and a good, addictive... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 1999
Enjoyable enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way.
This book took me awhile to finish because whenever I looked at it lying on my bedstand I'd think, "Do I care enough about this book to finish it? Read more
Published on 20 Dec 1998
_Snowcrash_ lite - but in a good way
I totally enjoyed this homage to the wily genre of eco-thrilling, econo-dystopic futuristic sf. This book not only invoked Neal Stephenson's _Zodiac_ and _Snowcrash_, but also... Read more
Published on 10 Nov 1998
Boring, poorly written, derivative dreck.
I bought this book because of the hype on the back cover by Thomas Pynchon and Neal Stevenson. Won't make that mistake again. Read more
Published on 20 Oct 1998
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