Gojiro

by Mark Jacobson

Book Overview

Imagine Lewis Carroll, Julian Jaynes, and Thomas Pynchon collaborating to describe the cosmological quest of a five-hundred-foot-tall mutated monitor lizard and his friend Coma Boy, an amnesiac survivor of the Hiroshima bomb blast. Well, forget it, you're never going to see those writers working together. Thankfully, Mark Jacobson took this task upon his own true self. Jacobson's GOJIRO is a wild and humorous fairytale about the Atomic Age, about...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871133962
• ISBN13: 9780871133960
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An exhilirating experience of a book!

This book has touched me as few others have. It really is an awesome and engrossing novel, unusual and eccentric as it may be.I'm aware it's not for everyone, as I can see by the other reviews posted here. And, to tell the truth, it's not really a genre sf novel, so people looking for long-winded physiological descriptions of Godzilla, leave now.Frankly, this is NOT a Godzilla book. It is NOT an action-packed thriller or a pretentious hard sf novel filled with technobabble. This is a deeply philosophical work that uses the image of Godzilla, a mistake of human technology becoming the defender of humanity, as a symbol of evolution; mutation becoming adaptation becoming progress. The author freely edits scientific and historical details for the purposes of the story, which is more like an epic poem or painting than a straight narrative; characters, while on one level being very real people, also serve as symbolic archetypes, and the many seemingly-impossible events, while reinforcing the otherworldly atmosphere of the story, also all have a point behind them, once you look. (For example, the creation and growth of Radioactive Island through seemingly haphazard chance serves as a strong metaphor for evolution throughout the story.) The premise, a Godzilla-like creature developing a sort of religious cult philosophy that becomes inadvertently broadcast in a series of movies, seems silly at first, but the thing is, it works. More than that, it works so well that it strongly colored my perceptions of the real-life Godzilla; I'd been aware that he was a symbol of the Nuclear Age before, but this really brought it home to me.The contrived slang, the "hip" lingo, the monster's cynicism... While some might be turned off by it, it worked for me. If you can start to accept the novel on its own terms, try to understand the beautiful alternate world and belief system it depicts rather than judging it, then before long the internal logic of Gojiro becomes clear, and concepts and events that initially seem silly become poignant and touching. The novel purposely uses unfamiliar, strange-sounding language to get us to see difficult issues in a new light, and get us to think from the monster's perspective. Somehow it all works, it all comes together, and it does make its own mutant kind of sense. Which is really what the novel is about, at heart, evolution and change, misfits from the old order becoming the seed of the new one, mutants making their own mutant kind of sense, and prospering.The novel's ultimate message was uplifting and optimistic while at the same time remaining realistic and consistent with the cynical points it made earlier; it seems corny and weird, but, in the end, I believed it. It brought the whole novel together masterfully, and the touching epilogue left tears in my eyes. This novel made a huge impression on me, and I'd recommend it to anyone willing to keep an open mind and experience serious ideas fr

Weird, but fun

This has to be one of the best books I've ever read! At first, I expected a lowbrow (but fun) novelization of a Godzilla movie, lots of pyros and military firepower and mindless city stomping, nothing too difficult to understand. But this books was a pleasant surprise. It was written in a great way (like LORD OF THE FLIES meets CALVIN AND HOBBES), the story was gripping, and you learn to love the characters. Although it was a little bizzare and taxed your brain to the max, it was well worth the effort. I've read and re-read this book over and over.

This book rocks!!!

It is a sad commentary that the mass market paperback of this book, had a cheesy sci-fi cover and marketed as a genre book. Gojiro is a mile a minute thrill ride looking into the soul of a post Hiroshima world. Oppenheimer vs. Godzilla for the fate of a planet. Effin' Brilliant.

epic fantasy-fable on the level of John Gardner's Grendel

I suppose fantasy is the necessary category but the quality of writing is far above what is normally found. This is one of the best books I've read in five years; Jacobsen writes here on the level of Barth, Pynchon, Berger, Burgess. Though I like his writing in New York Mag. and his new book (Everyone and No One) is ok, Gojiro is magnificent. Permit a quote for its sheer auditory beauty: "But once the tabloid reflex locks and Luce's sluice flings loose, who needs proof?" A lovely commentary on contemporary media coverage. Thank you, Mr. Jacobson.

Jacobson creates a beautiful nuclear age metaphysics.

The thing about this fairy tale is that it creates a more beautiful world view than any religion I've studied. The sublime theme of the book is that belief systems, whether they be religious, philosophical, or societal, are all subject to perversion, destruction, and absorbtion from conflicting systems of thought. 'Gojiro' presents a charmingly ridiculous and heart warming system of thought which tries it's best to account for all the craziness of the modern era. It's is tempting to make 'Gojiro' a bible, a centerpiece for a new religion, but 'Gojiro' warns against this sort of reverence, to quote a passage; "...it's a heck of a space saver, having only one book on the shelf. But which Book?" How could any illuminated person not dig this crazy levia-thang, man. Gojiro be the monster that blows metaphysics like Miles Davis blows the bugle, it's jazz for seekers who don't give a damn about finding an answer.