I've seen attempts to blend
hardboiled detective fiction with
cyberpunk/
dark future before, but never in such a maniacally weird way. By
Jonathan Lethem, this novel is set in a future
Oakland, where
kangaroos and
babies have artificially-
evolved adult
intelligence. There's a
murder mystery involved, but I don't remember it. Like a lot of
cyberpunk novels, you're in it for the zany ride; and like the best
Raymond Chandler/
Dashiell Hammett novels, you're in it for the rapid-fire
prose.
Literal
karma points,
cigar-chomping infants, '
roos with
tommy guns, and a society with laws against
asking questions...It'll either be too weird for you to keep reading, or it'll be too weird for you to not finish.
For the record, I got it for the title, which was just
cool. It comes from a reference to "the occasional
music of a
gun" that blares and shrieks in old
black and white thrillers.
"Tell him next time he wants to talk to me, don't send a marsupial."