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:

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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mixture of Objectivism, environmentalism, and a lot else., 28 Aug 1999

By A Customer

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 evil person), seems to think that this book is hilarious. Right they are. Although Ruff obviously does not understand Ayn Rand, his humorous dialogue including her is brilliant satire. SEWER, GAS, AND ELECTRIC's brilliantly intertwining plots are a great parody of Atlas Shrugged, and it is the funniest and one of the best books that I have evr read. Its fascinatingly inter-weaving plots allow for some of the most varied interprations I have ever observed of a book. Everyone seems to have taken something different away from it than most others have. From the Ruff's interpretation of the ecentricities of New Yorkers to the "shallowness of its plot", SEWER, GAS, AND ELECTRIC has something for everyone. It is probably the only book that I have read that has made me laugh out loud more than once, and is probably the only one that has caused me to do that each of the multiple times that I have read it.

-Name Irrelevant

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intense, 9 Aug 1999

By A Customer

This is one of the first books where I really wanted the "heroes" (Dufresne, Jane, etc.) to die. I was not amused by any of their antics, and really wanted them to fail. Really strange feeling...but it's a good read. Only 3 stars though....

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 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

3.0 out of 5 stars Ruff is an excellent writer but a poor philosopher.
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. Read more

Published on 24 Jun 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Condon meets Kurt Vonnegut
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. Read more

Published on 17 May 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more

Published on 22 Mar 1999

2.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars 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

3.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars _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

1.0 out of 5 stars 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

› See all 12 customer reviews...

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Sewer Gas and Electric (Public Works Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

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