- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (13 Nov 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 000654763X
- ISBN-13: 978-0006547631
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,403,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Somewhere East of Life
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Product Description
Review
Astonishingly prolific and surprisingly humane and solid (OBSERVER )
Outdoes both Julian Barnes and Graham Swift...remarkable (Spectator ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Outdoes both Julian Barnes and Graham Swift...remarkable (Spectator ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
‘Caps his entire career… sums up the warnings he has uttered for decades.’ NEW STATESMAN
‘As exotic and picaresque as anything in the Helliconia series; the novel boils with ideas about belief and causality, and is shot through with visionary and delirious passages.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Packs in enough detailed research and relevance for a dozen novels with contemporary settings.’ LITERARY REVIEW
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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4 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
He still has it
5 Jan 2001
Format:Paperback
Generally when you go to read books by authors who are years past their absolute peak works you're not expecting much. Thus far Aldiss has wowed me with NonStop and the Helliconia Trilogy and while this book didn't make me proclaim it as the savior of literature, it's a darn fine novel and can easily go toe to toe with most of the new authors that show up every year or so. The idea here is that poor Roy lives in a very near future in a world much like ours, where he acts as a preserver, taking pictures and documenting old churches and the like before the civil unrest in the area reaches it and it gets bombed into oblivion. In any event, Roy unfortunately gets ten years of his memory stolen by folks who package them into "bullets" and sell them to people who want to experience the lives of other people, currently the newest illegal craze. Roy, adrift and confused, now has to try and put his life back together while dealing with the fact that not only does he have an ex-wife but he doesn't even remember being married at all, while at the same time trying to find his memories so he can get them back. The plot takes a bit of an episodic spin at that point, which is probably the best way to go since it gives Aldiss a chance to show his world off and make some comments about the world we live in. Roy travels from danger spot to danger spot, running into violence and warlords, armies and relics, all the while trying to figure out just what effect the last ten years had on him and just what went wrong with his ex-wife. Definitely engaging, always thought-provoking, this is all too often overlooked in his list of decent books, don't make a mistake and miss this.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A bit disappointing from so great an author.
17 July 1999
Format:Paperback
The New York Times Book Review said that "Mr. Aldiss is now in competition with nobody but himself." In Somewhere East of Life, Brian Aldiss does the impossible and loses.
What stands out is not that Somewhere East of Life is a bad book (it's not), but that it's decidedly "eh". The chapters fall quickly into place; after the first four or five, every other one is as bland as a flat 7-Up. Moreso than that, Aldiss fails to live up to the potential of the story; getting ten years of your life stolen and made into porn brings to mind several other story ideas that would have made Somewhere East of Life a much better book than it is. Perhaps I should leave it at that; it's a decent story soured by the fact that it COULD and SHOULD be better.
Illuminating
11 Jan 2006
Format:Hardcover
I should say up front that Brian Aldiss connects with me in a way that no other author does. His observations seem to me sharper and his conclusions spot-on. In his Squire Quartet he takes a far more meandering approach which I found most rewarding in this novel. The action is sparse and rarely truly exciting and yet it is a real page-turner. As usual, Aldiss paints an all-too familiar picture of all our lives and hopes and dreams amidst a selfish, uncaring world yet manages to make us feel profoundly good to be a part of it. I've read most of his numerous works and find this to be right near the top of my favourites list, despite being altogether different from the kind of science fiction I generally enjoy.
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