Gojiro - Hardcover

Jacobson, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871133962 ISBN 13: 9780871133960

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991

Synopsis

A lizard made gigantic by atomic bomb testing, and a recently comatose boy--whose family had been killed nine years earlier in the Hiroshima blast--venture forth to discover their identities in a nuclear age

About this title

Reviews

This remarkable first novel combines the manic energy of monster movies and comic books with a serious and sad look at the post-nuclear world. At center stage are two friends. One is Gojiro, a 500-foot-tall lizard who has swollen to his extraordinary size--and acquired the shrewd brain of higher life forms--as a result of an atomic test. Then there's his comrade Komodo, a human victim of Hiroshima. A mystical and telepathic bond unites them; they make a home for themselves and other radiation victims on a volcanic island in the middle of a "roiling petrochemical sea." But Gojiro becomes a movie star, setting out with Komodo for Hollywood at the strange request of a film producer (whose father was involved with the Manhattan Project tests that produced Gojiro). They soon uncover a plot to test new atomic weapons that, in the best comic book tradition, threatens the world. The plot is fast-moving and fun, but the bulk of the book consists of long, philosophical dialogues between the austere youth and the wisecracking monster--whose hipster jargon is a perfect imitation of the late rock critic Lester Bangs. The novel's beauty lies in the way these often hilarious conversations strike a poignant note while the "mutants" try to come to grips with the horrors of their lives.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Transformed by post-World War II atomic testing into a gargantuan and sentient behemoth, the former monitor lizard now known as "Gojiro" forms a quasi-mystical bond with a Japanese survivor of Hiroshima--a bond which leads them from their island retreat to the glitter of Hollywood and ultimately into a search for the essence of life itself. Bursting with ideas, full of broad humor and epic comedy laced with an underlying seriousness and compassion, this first novel represents speculative fiction at its literary and imaginative best. It is highly recommended.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871133962
• ISBN 13: 9780871133960
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 356