2007 Challenge - Book 3
- Way of the Peaceful Warrior - Dan Millman
- Tears of the Giraffe (The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency) - Alexander McCall Smith
- The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag - Robert A. Heinlein
3. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag - Robert A. Heinlein
This novel is actually a collection of short stories, with the main one being "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag." The other stories are "The Man Who Travelled in Elephants," "'-All You Zombies-,'" "They," "Our Fair City" and "'-And He Built a Crooked House-.'" I've read other books by Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and one more that I can't recall right now), but this collection is by far the most trippy. The blurb about the main stories is that it is a horror story, and yet, I didn't find it horrifying. Intersting, distrubing, confusing, but not horrifying. Heinlein uses a techinique, which isn't unusual. The idea that mirrors are a gateway to another world/realm. The people of this realm are trying to capture/kill Jonathan Hoag, and Hoag, in turns, contacts two detectives to help him. They find out nothing, and become more and more invovled in the mystery, despite the mirror creatures (The Sons of the Bird) warning them to stop their investigation.
"THe Man Who Travelled in Elephants" was by far the easiest to figure out what was going on. It seemed the most 'obvious' one. "'-All You Zombies-'" took awhile to wrap my head around. He raped herself, she gave birth to herself, she became he, he gave herself a job, and the cycle begins again. Seriously confusing. "They," well I still don't fully understand what happened at the end. Basically it's about this guy who believes that the world is out to get him, and he's the only real person, and I *think* at the end, he's right. Possibly.
"Our Fair City" is by far the sweetest story of the bunch, it's about this whirlwind, who runs for mayor. Or, rather, is elected mayor. Kitten, the whirlwind, responds to commands, and enjoys playing hide'n'seek. Finally, "'-And He Built a Crooked House-'" is a story about a man who finds the three-dimensional house building prosaic, and decides to build a four-dimensional house. Confused? You bet, the house collapses in the fourth dimension, but stays around in the third in a slightly altered state, it then disappears, maybe to the fifth dimension, who can say. (214 pages)
3 / 50 Books
(6.0%)
656 / 20,000 Pages
(3.0%)
10 / 365 Days
(2.7%)