Easy Travel to Other Planets

By Ted Mooney

Book Overview

"One of the most original seductions in recent fiction... a novel of immensely tender feeling." -The New York Review of Books

Ted Mooney's first novel Easy Travel to Other Planets endures as a cult classic known for its opening scene describing a woman having sex with a dolphin.

Winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and a finalist for the National Book Award, Mooney's inventive novel was also named to the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374528284
• ISBN13: 9780374528287
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

My favorite book of all time - seriously!

I read Easy Travel to Other Planets over 20 years ago and it still remains my favorite book of all time. Why? The main reason, I guess, is that it affected me more than any book I have read since then. The ending made me so mad I actually threw the book across the room, cursing. When I calmed down, I realized that it was the best ending Ted Mooney could have come up with for the situations he created in the story. It was an arc that had to end violently, and yet lovingly. Those are contradictory terms, of course, but this is "Slipstream" fiction at its best, remember, and was meant to step outside stereotypes and conventions in modern fiction. I look at this book like I might a piece of art work that I don't want to like, but can't help staring at. It is a story that has stayed in my thoughts for over 20 years. Now, as a struggling writer myself, I could only dream to one day write a story that affects people like this one did-even if it is only a handful. That would mean far more to me than being on a best-sellers list. Just my opinion, of course. No book is for everyone... Joseph Rhea Author of Cyberdrome

I just loved this book!

I read this book twenty years ago, and I still think of it from time to time. It was an enormously prophetic book, talking of things like "information sickness" a term that's made its way into my lexicon. I'm so glad to see it's still in print and still selling! Sheila Curran, author of DIANA LIVELY IS FALLING DOWN

A gorgeous, prescient novel

This was the best first novel of its year, a beautifully written book that captured the sensibility of a generation of university-educated Americans (their fears, their open minds) and transcended some of its shocking scenes to leave a residue of powerful images. Mooney's uncanny discussion of "information sickness" appeared years before ARPAnet became the internet, and the "Fossil Fuel 500," so intriguing to the cancer-stricken mother, prefigures the red-state popularity of NASCAR. And who can forget the relationship-averse friend who's afraid to stop using her airline pass? This is a special book, better than Mooney's second and third novels (though "Singing into the Piano" is worth a read), and I recommend it to anyone who loves literature and/or wants a glimpse into the inner life of what are now 50 year-old boomers.

Thought-provoking

I agree with many of the criticisms of the other reviewers. Yes, some aspects are disturbing. But so many details were remarkably prescient. Notice how the race audience pays more attention to their headphones than to what's going on in front of them. Notice the multi-tasking and information overload. I read this book in its original edition. I don't even remember how long ago that was, but I still find myself thinking about it! To me that's a book worth reading.

A lyrical tale based on hard science.

Mooney has been able to with his first novel what many others have struggled to do with more experience: make a poem about a scientific subject that both poets and scientists can enjoy. Easy Travel to Other Planets is a well written, quick moving tale that encorporates the love (in more than one way) of dolphins, and a sense of the pull that men and women have for each other. It is a tremendous first effort.