- Unknown Binding
- ASIN: B0014NIECI
The Box from Japan
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A wild ride!
31 Dec 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase
If I'm not mistaken this is the longest single-volume mystery ever published in the US... 73 chapters and 407 double-column pages in this edition. Written in 1932 it takes place in 1942 Chicago, where Carr Halsey, a newspaper sports columnist, and his sidekick, reporter Artemus Baxter, tackle a many-faceted mystery which ultimately boils down to who killed a chemist named Proctor, and why, and what happened to a seemingly completely vanished stock shareholder that two rival interests are hotly searching for. As in most Keeler novels there is virtually no action, except for a gunbattle at the country estate of a spy, and a wild taxi ride at high speed through crowded Chicago streets to reach the missing shareholder before a rival representative does.
The reader will find many strange things about the richly detailed future that is the real subject of the novel. For one thing, much more than a decade seems to have passed since 1932... perhaps Keeler originally intended the novel to be set in 1952 or 1962 and he or his publisher got cold feet at such a long time jump.
How can you not like a novel with plot that turns on a Mexican economy based on sugar produced by genetically engineered cacti? A system for theatrical projection of live overseas 3D color TV broadcasts? A method of making a powerful explosive from sugar. A Japanese emperor whose plan to neutralize the British fleet and conquer Australia would probably have worked despite the new Nicaraguan Canal. A communication method involving a tight plasma beam set up high in the atmosphere between transmitter and receiver. A man trying to conceal his role as a traitor during the Russo-Japanese war; and a secret society devoted to hunting him down! An unbreakable code based on a Mexican High School physics textbook. A method for temporarily increasing the strength of steel by more than a factor of 2. And much, much, much more.
Keeler was a trained engineer and the "future" techology about which the characters lecture one another in often overwhelming detail is not always preposterous. There is also a great deal of social and political satire. As usual in a Keeler novel, the "mystery" of who killed the chemist and why is "solved" only on the last page, when essential background information that was never available to the reader during the course of the story has been suddenly trotted out.
If you love the works of Harry Stephen Keeler, this is a novel not to be missed... written before his literary efforts deteriorated into complete unreadability, but still full of the total craziness that is essentially Keeler.
The computer-scanned text has a number of computer-generated misprints, but many fewer than usual in books reproduced in such a way.
The reader will find many strange things about the richly detailed future that is the real subject of the novel. For one thing, much more than a decade seems to have passed since 1932... perhaps Keeler originally intended the novel to be set in 1952 or 1962 and he or his publisher got cold feet at such a long time jump.
How can you not like a novel with plot that turns on a Mexican economy based on sugar produced by genetically engineered cacti? A system for theatrical projection of live overseas 3D color TV broadcasts? A method of making a powerful explosive from sugar. A Japanese emperor whose plan to neutralize the British fleet and conquer Australia would probably have worked despite the new Nicaraguan Canal. A communication method involving a tight plasma beam set up high in the atmosphere between transmitter and receiver. A man trying to conceal his role as a traitor during the Russo-Japanese war; and a secret society devoted to hunting him down! An unbreakable code based on a Mexican High School physics textbook. A method for temporarily increasing the strength of steel by more than a factor of 2. And much, much, much more.
Keeler was a trained engineer and the "future" techology about which the characters lecture one another in often overwhelming detail is not always preposterous. There is also a great deal of social and political satire. As usual in a Keeler novel, the "mystery" of who killed the chemist and why is "solved" only on the last page, when essential background information that was never available to the reader during the course of the story has been suddenly trotted out.
If you love the works of Harry Stephen Keeler, this is a novel not to be missed... written before his literary efforts deteriorated into complete unreadability, but still full of the total craziness that is essentially Keeler.
The computer-scanned text has a number of computer-generated misprints, but many fewer than usual in books reproduced in such a way.
If you only read one Keeler, read this one ye fool
2 Nov 2011
This book is a mighty massive tome. It rivals Dostoevsky.
While the book has many charming moments, many hilarious moments, and really some very well written action sequences, the book is ingenious for its conceptual jokes. At one point the main character is asking this man how 3-D television works (it takes place in the future, a future that is long past now)... the man says, "OK, I only have fifteen minutes to talk, but let's see..." and the ensuing conversation lasts roughly sixty pages.
If you can handle that kind of thing, well, you must know you can if you have read Keeler before.
If you have not read any Keelers, start with Sing Sing Nights or Green Jade Hand.
This one is my favorite. I have read it three times. It has the power to stun and be an immensely long-winded lighthearted joke at the same time. What a balance to strike: that is Keeler's literary contribution.
While the book has many charming moments, many hilarious moments, and really some very well written action sequences, the book is ingenious for its conceptual jokes. At one point the main character is asking this man how 3-D television works (it takes place in the future, a future that is long past now)... the man says, "OK, I only have fifteen minutes to talk, but let's see..." and the ensuing conversation lasts roughly sixty pages.
If you can handle that kind of thing, well, you must know you can if you have read Keeler before.
If you have not read any Keelers, start with Sing Sing Nights or Green Jade Hand.
This one is my favorite. I have read it three times. It has the power to stun and be an immensely long-winded lighthearted joke at the same time. What a balance to strike: that is Keeler's literary contribution.
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