レビュー要約

• 作品の構成や題材の切り込み方に強い個性があり、読後に残る余韻を評価する声がある。文体や設定の濃さは読み手を選ぶ面もある。

レビュー

• 1 part Dr Strangelove 2 parts Mystery Science Theater 3000

  If your a fan of the above you'll enjoy this book as I did. I will dispense with plot summaries as there are enough here already. Suffice to say it is a delightful take on an alternate military strategy for ending WW 2 ( only slightly more humane than the course taken). Told in a Sam Spade style narrative, Morrow's wit and use of language transcends what I almost dismissed as to silly a plot for my time-I'm glad I didn't.

• IF YOU ARE GOING TO SHAMBLE, MAKE IT FUNNY

  THIS IS A HILARIOUS TAKE ON HOW WE MIGHT HAVE AVOIDED THE TRAGEDY OF THE HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BOMBS - COMPLETELY OFF THE WALL, BUT NEVERTHELESS NO MORE RIDICULOUS THAN THE WAY IN WHICH MUCH OF THE WORLD'S CONFLICTS HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED. I WOULD HAPPILY ACCEPT A SMIDGEON OF MORROW'S IMAGINATION FOR MYSELF - AND - YOU GET DROLLERY TOO!

• A Must for the Kaiju Fan Out There

  If you are a lover of monster movies of any type you will love this book. It takes place in that transitory time of the mid-ninety forties when classic monsters and their progeny filled the movie screens and provides a meta-fictional explanation for the movement from classic studio pictures of yore to the American atomic menace movies and the Japanese monster movies of the same time. It features a jaded monster movie actor as he writes his confession of his strange WWII activities involving Project Knickerbocker. I won't spoil the details but the writing is very humorous and the dialogue is whip smart. For anyone who is a fan of monster movies, alternate history, showbiz stories, and conspiracy stories will have to pick this up. It is light and short so it is an easy read. I read it in one day. Highly Recommended

• Just Crazy Enough To Work

  This is more of a 2 or 2.5 star book, but the concept was "just crazy enough to work", and it managed to find its voice and rubber suit for most of the book. The main narrative was hilarious and engaging. It fell apart during the overarching narrative framing story, and the ending was a sad denouement. I did enjoy several bits of writing that poked satirical fun at Hollywood and giant monster movies, as well as a few bits that tweaked their noses, Three Stooges style, at the U.S. military. The discussion and descriptions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors tacked on at the end felt out of place and didn't connect well to the rest of the story to me. It was jarring, although for all I know that was the author's intention. There really are no words for the horrors inflicted in those two attacks.

• Pacific Rim Shot

  One of James Morrow's lighter works, Shambling Towards Hiroshima could also have been aptly titled Theater of War, as the monster movie machine of Hollywood meets the war machine of the Pentagon. An epistolary tale in the form of a lengthy suicide note written by screenwriter and rubber-monster-suit actor Syms Thorley, in which he laments his involvement in a failed attempt to use the threat of military-controlled giant monsters to end World War 2. There is much in Morrow's novel about monsters of war both real and imagined, but this morose contemplation on horror as entertainment in the Hiroshima shadows of truly monstrous acts is playfully wrapped up in a Hollywood satire. In fact, Morrow does such a good job of blending real film history with the films and filmmakers of his alternate universe that it can be hard separating truth from fiction, and considering the backdrop of propaganda-driven fictions attempting to manipulate the real world, this is probably meant to enhance/enforce the novel's overall metaphor. This isn't Morrow's first book to tangle with the dark realities of nuclear war, but it is far less morose than This Is the Way the World Ends, and possibly even a tad more hopeful.

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