Lennon, J Robert
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1970- ) US author whose earlier works, though they occasionally imply the fantastic, can be understood in terms of a heated, surreally dense naturalism. In its depiction of a small town transfigured by a domineering entrepreneur, Happyland (cut version July-October 2006 Harper's; 2013 ebook) edges into the Horror inscape of a writer like Jonathan Carroll; Familiar (2012), on the other hand, can be read as a genuine sf novel. Its protagonist, a middle-aged woman trapped in a desolated life, finds herself suddenly transported into an Alternate World similar, except in her seemingly much improved circumstances, to the reality she has left. An apparent Jonbar Point – the exact event that has enabled her son, in this new world, to avoid death, a survival whose effect is transformative on all around him – is not examined; but the protagonist's attempts to cope with Identity Transfer into an "improved" version of herself, to which she has been inescapably wed, are told with fixating intensity. A similar Equipoise governs Subdivision (2021), whose protagonist is trapped in a guesthouse in a world with quasi-animate handheld AIs who die if not shone upon, revenants and a dance of flickering beings, possibly due to a scientific experiment in a surreal neighbouring City. As with most twenty-first century examples of Fantastika, these novels gain immensely when their premises are understood literally. [JC]
John Robert Lennon
born: Philipsberg, New Jersey: 7 May 1970
works
- The Light of Falling Stars (New York: Riverhead Books, 1997) [hb/Marc J Cohen]
- The Funnies (New York: Riverhead Books, 1999) [hb/Charles Björklund and Marc J Cohen]
- On the Night Plain (New York: Henry Holt, 2001) [hb/]
- Mailman (New York: W W Norton, 2003) [hb/Veet/CSA]
- Castle (Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2009) [hb/Kyle G Hunter]
- Familiar (Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2012) [hb/Kyle G Hunter]
- Happyland (no place given: Dzanc Books, 2013) [ebook: cut version first appeared July-October 2006 Harper's: publication of 2005 original edition cancelled by W W Norton: na/]
- Broken River (London: Serpent's Tail, 2017) [pb/]
- Subdivision (Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2021) [pb/Kyle G Hunter]
collections
- Pieces for the Left Hand: 100 Anecdotes (London: Granta Books, 2005) [coll: pb/]
- Video Game Hints, Tricks and Cheats (no place given: no publisher given, 2010) [coll: ebook: na/]
- The Great Zombie (no place given: no publisher given, 2011) [coll: ebook: illus/Lou Beach: na/]
links
previous versions of this entry