Rating: 
Summary: An unflinching sucker punch.
Review: This is the best book I've read all year (still, it's only May- and hope springs eter... well, no, actually, not after reading this book, hope does not spring. It just lies there, with a neat little hole in its forehead). At times hilarious, and at time devestatingly poignant, The Elementary Particles is an angry denunciation of, well, just about everything- from the degeneration of decadence and libertine sexual values, to the violence and cruelty innate in nature and humanity, to the cult of youth and physical beauty, to the hope of ever finding lasting love or underlying meaning in the world... Beautifully written, with great twists and turns. The sex scenes are handled deftly, as are the myriad (and I mean myriad) analogies for the human condition taken from phyiscs, biology, quantum mechanics, chemistry... I don't know. Language fails me. I wanted to provide some ballast for the more negative reviews here. People are entitled to their opinions, but how anyone could not be moved by this book- I could almost hear Barber's adagio for air (yes, the one from Platoon) luminously echoing through many of the scenes. Like the book says, in its final lines, it is dedicated to mankind. I think it lives up to that ideal, and is a worthy monument and testament to humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Malaise
Review: While I enjoyed reading this book, I am, in retrospect, a bit unimpressed. The book has some fine ideas and the occasionally raucous observation that will cause the reader to burst out in laughter. In general, though, it seems poorly organized and portrays a postmodern perspective that is just a bit too decentralized and pessimistic to keep one genuinely engaged. As a friend observed, the book seems less a novel than a loosely-structured narrative that allows the author to espouse some of his ideas in a set of eccentric essays. These tend to be interesting but would probably be better formatted a la Montaigne. In considering all the various characters, you'll recognize at the end that not a one 'wins.' Every single character has ended up unhappy, dead, or in despair. Such is the author's prerogative but it conveys what may well be his primary intention: a reactionary longing for a world with fixed meanings and authority; a pre-revolutionary France where God and King rule side by side. Certainly a common, but naive, solution to a state of crisis. What makes the novel unique is its fusion of high ideas and base sexuality. Rarely does one encounter such juxtaposition; and while it is not truly appealing, it gives the book a certain freshness. I found the end to be almost a non-sequitir, a sort of sci-fi tag-on that seems out of place and somewhat ridiculous.
Rating:
Summary: Malaise
Review: While I enjoyed reading this book, I am, in retrospect, a bit unimpressed. The book has some fine ideas and the occasionally raucous observation that will cause the reader to burst out in laughter. In general, though, it seems poorly organized and portrays a postmodern perspective that is just a bit too decentralized and pessimistic to keep one genuinely engaged. As a friend observed, the book seems less a novel than a loosely-structured narrative that allows the author to espouse some of his ideas in a set of eccentric essays. These tend to be interesting but would probably be better formatted a la Montaigne. In considering all the various characters, you'll recognize at the end that not a one 'wins.' Every single character has ended up unhappy, dead, or in despair. Such is the author's prerogative but it conveys what may well be his primary intention: a reactionary longing for a world with fixed meanings and authority; a pre-revolutionary France where God and King rule side by side. Certainly a common, but naive, solution to a state of crisis. What makes the novel unique is its fusion of high ideas and base sexuality. Rarely does one encounter such juxtaposition; and while it is not truly appealing, it gives the book a certain freshness. I found the end to be almost a non-sequitir, a sort of sci-fi tag-on that seems out of place and somewhat ridiculous.
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