The Song of the Earth

by Hugh Nissenson

Book Overview

Even before his birth, Johnny Baker's life is in danger. His mother breaks the law when she has her fertilized egg endowed with genes that will give her son the potential to become a visual artist.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565122984
• ISBN13: 9781565122987
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Future Shock

This is the second novel I've tackled by Hugh Nissenson. The first, "The Tree of Life: A Novel," is a remarkable work of imaginary historical fact, blended with reality (for example, Johnny Appleseed is a key character). That deceptively simple story, told through a series of journal entries and sketches, has a power far beyond its simplicity.Nissenson takes the artificial reality concept a huge leap forward in "The Song of the Earth." Also presented as "historical fact," down to footnotes from works "published" in the future, this novel paints a riveting, unsettling portrait of culture and life in the 22nd century. The story is told through a series of short "factoids" presented by a number of players in the tale. There are no shocking plot twists; we are told from the beginning that the main character, John Firth Baker, is dead. Bit by bit we learn the remarkable story of this genetically-engineered artist.It is fascinating to see Nissenson's future-word view. He artfully blends imagined geographic, political, religious, gender, sociological, technological, artistic, sexual, and poetic visions into a rather chilling world. I love the "non gender biased" grammar that peppers the work ("wimin" for "women") and the non-standard turned standard ("She was like..." and "She went..." used in place of "She said...").John Firth Baker is used and abused from the moment of his conception. He is in many ways despicable, yet I found myself caring deeply for this young, lost talent. His life is tragic and his loss is heartbreaking.The bombardment of perspectives (imagined e-mails, web info, diaries, interviews, etc.) works for me, and fits the world culture Nissenson has imagined. Integral to plot is the art of John Firth Baker, all created by Nissenson. Through the art, the evolution, development, and maturing of the young artist takes place before your eyes. And in the tragic tale of John Firth Baker, even his art is used and abused.I highly recommend this book. Hats off to Hugh Nissenson for creating an innovative, compelling, haunting masterpiece of art.

Just Around The Corner

In this book, Nissenson has transcended to a new plane of current fiction. Not only is the subject matter bold, daring and temporally topical, but the treatment of the subject matter and the stylilistic aspects of the book, make this my selection for leading candidtate for the National Book Award this year.The book, written in an epistolary style, which usually means letters, but in this case, are much closer to an "e-mail" format than a letter format. The style allows Nissenson to be alternatingly personal and intense versus removed and obscure, from message to message, giving him amazing stylistic versatility, which he utilizes to great advantage.Additionally, the book is a "multi-media" piece in that it mixes the media of written text with artistic visual creations and the use of "e-mail" as an expositional vehicle all in one piece of literature, which he then uses to give the reader an extrapolation of what is to come just around the corner in today's society. Today cloning has just started. Tomorrow, there will be science that allows us to change "congenitally deleterious" genetic problems, but what other detrimental effects might those "genetic corrections" contain, and might those horrible effects be only known after 100 or 1000 generations? These are in fact the questions that we will have to wrestle with and who is to say, which is an 'OK' genome change and which is not legal? As if this were not enough, Nissenson, may even be prescient in detecting the growing polarization of men and women in today's society. Not only are the viewpoints of these two necessary groups polarizing, but even the issue of self-sexual identity is becoming a problem for people in society today, no less 50 to 100 years from now. Nissenson leaves no issue unaddressed and all serious modern literature readers should look to read this book, just to keep current with issues, if not for Nissenson's incredible craftsmanship.

a compelling novel

I highly recommend this highly unusual novel. Nissenson is a brilliant writer who projects the reader into his richly textured, deeply disturbing vision of life in the mid-21st century. Everything is different, yet everything is the same. The outer conditions of life are sharply different, yet the reader recognizes the emotional lives of the novel's characters. This is in many ways a terrifying vision of the future, brilliantly and sensitively rendered.

Song of the Earth sings.

Hugh Nissenson's new book, Song of the Earth, is hard to catogorize. In this work, Nissenson uses the written word, the visual image, and a non-narrative style to compliment each other, to produce a memorable picture of an artist and his art. The picture gradually emerging is of a man struggling with issues of existence and creativity made poignant by his enhanced capabilities, in the richly portrayed landscape of the future. It could be seen as sci-fi with its troubling vision of the future, plausably extrapolated from current scientific knowledge. It could be seen as an exploration of social developments where political, religious, and sexual preferences and practices are at once accepted and celebrated while the frictions of these varying life styles lead to bitter conflict. It could be seen as the exploration of the homoerotic life of his protagonist, as he pursues the yearnings of lust and affection. It could be seen as a chronical of artistic struggle and an exploration of the place art plays in the world. This last is developed using startling original art created by the author in his development of these themes seen through the eyes of his characters. Finally it can be seen as a skillful merging of artistic modalities, demonstrating the synergistic enhancement of expression. The result will satisfy those interested in any of these possible catagories.