The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
by Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem is one writer which has a 'twisted' way of looking at the world. His stories have a surreal atmosphere and feature unique situations that, on the face of it, seems rather ordinary until you dig deeper and realise he trying to put across really strange ideas.

Take this collection of short stories as an example. Of the seven stories in The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye, only one, "Light and the Sufferer," has the feel of a contemporary fiction story. The rest range from extremely strange to strangely disturbing. I hope my descriptions of the stories below will do them justice.

Warning: one of the stories featured in the collection as a word usually considered obscene in its title. The word will be spelt backwards here but it is spelled correctly in the book.

"The Happy Man" shows how strange a Lethem story can get. The main character is sentenced to Hell for unspecified crimes. In this story, Hell is a place your consciousness goes to most of the time and each person's Hell is different. In this character's Hell, he is a small boy in an adventure-like land over which he wanders. The only way he can 'return' to the real world is after he encounters the Happy Man who has finished 'using' him. The situation becomes more intense with the arrival of his brother at his home in the real world who may have a connection with the Happy Man.
"Vanilla Dunk" was the first Lethem story I read and already, his ability to put forward strange but wonderful situations shines through. The story is set in a world where the skills of basketball players can be downloaded into another player's exoskeleten and used in games. Imagine the turmoil this causes in a team when a white player gets the skills of Michael Jordan! The trouble this causes with other team-mates who think the player (known as "Vanilla Dunk") is getting too big for his shoes is hilarious, yet believable. I probably would have enjoyed the story more if I knew more about basketball.
"Light and the Sufferer" is probably about the closest 'contemporary' fiction story in this collection. It tells the tale of two brothers trying to unload some drugs they had stolen. Following them is an alien (a 'Sufferer') who like to trail after people in trouble. But what the Sufferer does is unknown: does it protect the person in trouble, or does it cause more trouble by being seen with the person? Unfortunately, this story does not reveal that and it ends ambiguously.
"Forever, said the Duck" is absolutely surreal in its situation. It features characters apparently appearing in a virtual reality party where the rules are not really know, except that guests are invited by the host or hostess. As the party progresses, they start to change shape, one of them into the duck of the title. But other than that, the story was way, way too surreal for my taste!
"Five skcuF" (yes, this is the story with the obscene word in the title) is less surreal than the previous story, but no less imaginative. The story revolves around three characters, a man and a woman who simply cannot keep their hands (or bodies) off each other and a person named Pupkiss. So as not to give the story away, lets just say that every time the man and woman get together, something weird happens and, by the fifth time, the story has gotten really weird. But Pupkiss remains constant; or about as constant as he can get.
"The Hardened Criminals" is a title with multiple meanings. It has the standard meaning of criminals who are now leading a life of crime. But it also has another meaning: a prison has walls made up of criminals who have been solidified. The story revolves around a criminal with the task of getting information from his father (sealed in the wall) about a possible conspiracy. Yet, the story does not forget the original meaning of a hardened criminal.
"Sleepy People" is a story about sleepy people. In this one, the main character find one of the sleepy people asleep on her patio. Her reaction to seeing him sleep, her attempts to revive him or to get help for him lead her deeper into a world where security is sometimes found from the strangest kind of people.

In general, this is a reasonable collection of stories by Lethem. But unless you have a taste for really unusual situations, this book may not be for you. But if you have read one or two of his stories and hunger for more, this would be an interesting book to have.

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The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem

The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
by Jonathan Lethem