Gun, With Occasional Music
Jonathan Lethem
274 pages
Twenty-first-century private detective Conrad Metcalf has a dead doctor on his hands, a monkey on his back, and a kangaroo in his waiting room in a first novel with a sharp-edged, funny vision of the future.
The concept of this book is intriguing, but it quickly becomes overwhelming with its hardboiled noir sci-fi style, especially when the detective's lament about his ex-girlfriend takes a bizarre turn.