Amnesia MoonJonathan Lethem
Sceptre paperback, 261 pages, £5.99
ISBN 0 340 63224 0
Review by Steven Blake (1995)
Amnesia Moon takes us to a distorted, shattered, post-Apocalypse America. What happened? Alien invasion? Nuclear war? Celebrities? Loads of assorted bad craziness? You pays your money and you takes your choice, as far as I can tell.
Chaos Moon, whoever he is or was (again, you choose, I guess, as he’s forgotten), eats dog food and goes off on a quest with his furry friend Melinda through – drives through, actually, Amnesia Moon would make an interesting road movie, something you’d certainly expect to see in Moviedrome – these Americas, discovering that dreams can now overwrite reality, even people. You could wake up changed into anything, so be careful what dreams you inhabit and which version of reality you choose. Perhaps those choices are the key.
Jonathan Lethem’s second book is weirder than his first, his dark(ish) future SF-private eye Gun, With Occasional Music, and a possible sequel of sorts. Funny as Amnesia Moon can be, it’s an even harder book to get a handle on. Perhaps it’s a book of dreams, nightmares and delusions. It is weird and wonderful, and I think I’m going to like it a lot when I re-read it.