- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing; New edition edition (8 July 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747238146
- ISBN-13: 978-0747238140
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,094,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A journey into the dark heart of mortality which follows a bereaved young husband's downward spiral into the dark side of the human psyche.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are many interesting ideas touched upon in this book. The main character, Jeremy Bremen, loses his wife to a brain tumour. They both have a rare gift to be able to mindshare, and communicate by telepathy. When the two of them are together they can create a "mindshield" to block out the "neurobabble" of thoughts of everyone else arround them disturbing their own, however when Bremen's wife Gail dies his mindshield is destroyed, letting in a bombardment of everyone's random thoughts invading his head. This turns him to despair, and he gradually embarks on a journey of self-destruction. However, it is not all doom and gloom. Many themes of parallel universes, and what happens when you die, and how we essentially create the world as the observers by means of complicated probability curves & wave patterns are all expolred in the story. It really does open your mind to other possibilities. There are lots of complicated chaos theory and maths equations dotted throughout the narrative to try and bring these points to light, but after a while you can get the hang of it. It does not intrude on the course of the story, which also involves vicious gangsters, murderous psycopaths, and shoot-outs at 15,000 feet...worth checking out.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
48 reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
'Hell is other people'
6 Dec 2004
Format:Paperback
It is a rare occurrence for me to read a book straight through from sunset to sunrise, but "The Hollow Man" deserved that kind of attention, even though it is very grim reading--in Dan Simmon's world, it is better to be brain-damaged than normal, drunk or drugged rather than sober, possibly dead rather than alive.
After his wife dies, Simmon's telepathic hero descends into a peculiarly American hell of gangsters, cardboard cities, rabid gangs, child molesters, and serial killers--there are many references to Dante in this book, and although Sartre isn't directly quoted, I'd guess that the main message of "The Hollow Man" is 'Hell is other people.'
What can a brilliant mathematician do when his perfect relationship with his telepathic wife ends with her death? He can commit suicide quickly or commit suicide slowly. Jeremy Bremen tries both ways.
I didn't even try to follow the equations in this book. I had my fill of diffie q's when I was in college. You might be interested in figuring out whether the author is merely waving his hands over the math and science, or whether he is truly attempting to make a case for the creation of new universes every time we commit to an action--whether it is something as simple as sitting down or remaining on our feet. Somewhere in the swiftly branching universes, Jeremy Bremen's wife didn't get brain cancer and die. Another, much older scientist who may be the only one who understands Jeremy's equations, gets the notion that he can find a universe that didn't experience the Holocaust of WWII, and where his family didn't die in the Ravensbruck concentration camp.
He kills himself.
"The Hollow Man" splits its chapters between Jeremy's hellish adventures after his wife dies, and flashbacks to happier days when she was alive and he was solving the mysteries of the universe. The poignancy is almost too difficult to bear, but Simmons is a good author and he makes you want to follow Jeremy to his quietus. Another character, a boy who was born blind, deaf, and mute and who is viciously abused by his mother and her live-in boyfriends, also narrates parts of the story. How Jeremy's universe and the universe of the handicapped boy overlap is the highlight and climax of "The Hollow Man."
After his wife dies, Simmon's telepathic hero descends into a peculiarly American hell of gangsters, cardboard cities, rabid gangs, child molesters, and serial killers--there are many references to Dante in this book, and although Sartre isn't directly quoted, I'd guess that the main message of "The Hollow Man" is 'Hell is other people.'
What can a brilliant mathematician do when his perfect relationship with his telepathic wife ends with her death? He can commit suicide quickly or commit suicide slowly. Jeremy Bremen tries both ways.
I didn't even try to follow the equations in this book. I had my fill of diffie q's when I was in college. You might be interested in figuring out whether the author is merely waving his hands over the math and science, or whether he is truly attempting to make a case for the creation of new universes every time we commit to an action--whether it is something as simple as sitting down or remaining on our feet. Somewhere in the swiftly branching universes, Jeremy Bremen's wife didn't get brain cancer and die. Another, much older scientist who may be the only one who understands Jeremy's equations, gets the notion that he can find a universe that didn't experience the Holocaust of WWII, and where his family didn't die in the Ravensbruck concentration camp.
He kills himself.
"The Hollow Man" splits its chapters between Jeremy's hellish adventures after his wife dies, and flashbacks to happier days when she was alive and he was solving the mysteries of the universe. The poignancy is almost too difficult to bear, but Simmons is a good author and he makes you want to follow Jeremy to his quietus. Another character, a boy who was born blind, deaf, and mute and who is viciously abused by his mother and her live-in boyfriends, also narrates parts of the story. How Jeremy's universe and the universe of the handicapped boy overlap is the highlight and climax of "The Hollow Man."
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
The Hollow Man is Amazing!
23 Aug 1998
Format:Paperback
After reading the other comments on this page I realise that this may not be everybody's idea of a fantastic novel. However, if you have enjoyed Simmons previously and/or you would like to read something truly original, try this. This novel certainly lives up to Dan Simmons reputation as being perhaps the most dynamic author of our, or any, time. This book, the story of Jeremy, who loses his way after the death of his wife only to, eventually, rediscover himself, his wife and the secret of life and death itself, is one of the strangest and most brilliant works of fiction in existence. I can only guess that the authors of the negative comments on this page must simply have failed the understand the massive scope of the journey that Simmons had led them on. Perhaps second only to Summer of Night, although I am yet to read Children of the Night or any of The Hyperion Cantos.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
reinforces what a creative genius Simmons is
4 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
This book grabbed me by the eyeballs - like the best of S.King/R. Bachman - and didn't let go until the very end. A wild ride - thought provoking and well-conceptualized throughout. An on-the-road type book, the protaganist travels from Philly to Disneyworld to the deserts to Las Vegas to... and deals with lots of intense violence and good sickening horror. And reminisces about l-o-v-e on the way to stir the reader in a different way. I liked the Hyperion series a lot - Hollow Man was easier to read (maybe because it is earthbound?) and I liked it just as much (if not better). Only disappointment (which some may like a lot), too much math and physics. Otherwise great stuff.
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