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How We Got Insipid
Book by Lethem, Jonathan
107 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2006
2 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Lethem
236 books2,657 followersJonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer.
His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller.
In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship
His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller.
In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 21, 2016
If you are a fan of Lethem these two "orphan" novellas are a great addition to all of those other fabulous stories in his two collections - a pair of pieces that round out a period of time in his writing that contained a more SciFi bent. In an afterword Lethem pens a great piece that tethers the works to his personal nostalgia and the reasons how they came to be (and why they weren't included in his collections). This is the type of stuff I love from authors - the act of creation woven into their personal experiences at that time of their lives - this makes me want to back and re-read all those early novels of his that I love.
This book is a slender tome of limited production (1,500) printed on beautiful acid-free paper. There is also an additional 225 prints signed and numbered by the author.
This book is a slender tome of limited production (1,500) printed on beautiful acid-free paper. There is also an additional 225 prints signed and numbered by the author.
July 12, 2022
One of the two stories included in this volume is one of the finer homages to Heinlein I have found. Lethem never worked the SF idioms in any traditional way and it was perfectly understandable when he moved into literary mainstream...though of course, most of his work still retains the oddnesses to be found in his science fiction, to its overall benefit.
March 16, 2025
As the author says in the afterward these are like the 1st chapters in unfinished novels and this left me conpletely unsatisfied. The second is a little lovecraftian which I enjoyed as a twilight zone style short story. The first was a little dull and it's not just that it feels dated given Wells wrote sci-fi 100 years ahead of its time.
August 26, 2023
Two novellas. The first is fine. The second is really good.
December 18, 2012
Two stories and an Afterword, and then you're out. This slim chapbook wouldn't take anyone long to digest. But if you've enjoyed Jonathan Lethem's other collected short stories, or for that matter his longer work, How We Got Insipid is well worth picking up despite its brevity.
These two tales do not appear in Lethem's other collections—or so Lethem says in said Afterword—but you may have run across them elsewhere anyway. I'd already read "How We Got In Town And Out Again" several times before, which blunted its impact for me this time. This story does actually appear in my copy of Lethem's collection The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye (a 2002 UK edition, perhaps with an expanded table of contents); I've also seen it in the fourteenth Gardner Dozois Year's Best SF anthology and, more recently, in Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology.
"How We Got In Town{...}" is a science fiction tale, set in a familiar American post-collapse landscape. Think "A Boy and His Dog," if that's the same kind of touchstone for you that it is for me. The U.S. has fragmented into a patchwork of feudal towns run by warlords of varying degrees of pretention, depravity and ruthlessness, separated by stretches of utterly lawless wilderness. Lewis and his big-sisterly companion Gloria (though she's not really his big sister) are refugees; they hook up with a traveling carnival of virtual-reality hucksters as a way into the next town down the line...
The other tale, "The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom" is also sf of a sort, an explicit homage to Robert A. Heinlein's "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," and I don't think I'd run across it elsewhere.
It's not strictly necessary to have read the Heinlein first, but it helps. Lethem explains, "I decided to smash it together with Max Ernst, Alfred Hitchcock, and the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird," along with several other references I've now forgotten." (p.106) Like Hoag, Jonathan Hornebom begins experiencing blackouts that affect his work. Unlike Hoag, though, Hornebom's profession really is insipid... he is a painter, but not an artist, a hack who churns out canvas after canvas full of sad-eyed clowns and big-eyed waifs. But Hornebom keeps waking up to find his canvases... edited, so he turns to private investigator Harriet Welch for help. And then things get weird...
Using a word like "insipid" in a title is a brave choice, the kind of half-arrogant self-deprecation that can all too easily be offputting. But in this case, Lethem's mashup of a title is a challenge, one to which I rather enjoyed rising.
These two tales do not appear in Lethem's other collections—or so Lethem says in said Afterword—but you may have run across them elsewhere anyway. I'd already read "How We Got In Town And Out Again" several times before, which blunted its impact for me this time. This story does actually appear in my copy of Lethem's collection The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye (a 2002 UK edition, perhaps with an expanded table of contents); I've also seen it in the fourteenth Gardner Dozois Year's Best SF anthology and, more recently, in Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology.
"How We Got In Town{...}" is a science fiction tale, set in a familiar American post-collapse landscape. Think "A Boy and His Dog," if that's the same kind of touchstone for you that it is for me. The U.S. has fragmented into a patchwork of feudal towns run by warlords of varying degrees of pretention, depravity and ruthlessness, separated by stretches of utterly lawless wilderness. Lewis and his big-sisterly companion Gloria (though she's not really his big sister) are refugees; they hook up with a traveling carnival of virtual-reality hucksters as a way into the next town down the line...
The other tale, "The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom" is also sf of a sort, an explicit homage to Robert A. Heinlein's "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," and I don't think I'd run across it elsewhere.
It's not strictly necessary to have read the Heinlein first, but it helps. Lethem explains, "I decided to smash it together with Max Ernst, Alfred Hitchcock, and the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird," along with several other references I've now forgotten." (p.106) Like Hoag, Jonathan Hornebom begins experiencing blackouts that affect his work. Unlike Hoag, though, Hornebom's profession really is insipid... he is a painter, but not an artist, a hack who churns out canvas after canvas full of sad-eyed clowns and big-eyed waifs. But Hornebom keeps waking up to find his canvases... edited, so he turns to private investigator Harriet Welch for help. And then things get weird...
Using a word like "insipid" in a title is a brave choice, the kind of half-arrogant self-deprecation that can all too easily be offputting. But in this case, Lethem's mashup of a title is a challenge, one to which I rather enjoyed rising.
February 6, 2017
How We Got Insipid is a collection of two of Lethem's short stories that were leftovers from his first two collections, The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye, and Men and Cartoons. Those two collections comprised his science-fiction stories, a genre for which he was known before moving over to literary fiction with Motherless Brooklyn. According to the afterword, these stories represent the last of his work in genre fiction, and rather then leave them orphaned, he chose to put these two stories together to make them more readily available to fans of his earlier work.
The first story is titled "How We Got in Town and Out Again", and is a post-apocalyptic story that's not really about being in a post-apocalypse at all. Lethem doesn't overlook how society changes in such an environment, but neither does his focus stay on survival, nor does he try to make the story about humans being the worst monsters of all. Instead, he examines the use of entertainment as a source of distraction. His narrator is a sixteen-year-old boy who has a naive view of the world, and he's traveling with a twenty-year-old woman who's more jaded and fatalistic. Together, they join a virtual-reality circus in order to move into a town, where it's easier to survive. The two form a view into this future that's comprehensive, though we have to fill in some of the blanks, since Lewis, the narrator, doesn't always understand what it is he's seeing.
The second story, "The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom", may or may not be a pastiche of Heinlein's "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag". The title certainly suggests that it is, as does the subtitle, but Lethem himself mentions in his afterword that the story was once rejected for being too close to Heinlein's novella, so who knows? Maybe Lethem revised it to make it so after the rejection. Either way, this story, which is about a painter who starts experiencing blackouts and then finding hideous figures drawn into his paintings, has a theme similar to Heinlein's story. Lethem's version is well-crafted and compelling (Hornebom hires a private investigator to find out what's happening to his paintings), and it treads into surreal waters. After reading As She Climbed Across the Table, I've come to expect nothing but originality from Lethem, and even if this story is based on Heinlein's work, it's still like nothing you've read before.
It's disappointing to see that Lethem has moved out of genre fiction entirely. His stories have always been thoughtful and moving and readable, even when they're about subjects in which I have no interest ("Vanilla Dunk" has stayed with me, twenty years after having read it), and his genre stories stood alone among all the other writers. Even though I know his literary stories would be just as good, I find myself uninterested in them without that view into the fantastic. Maybe one of these days I'll read one of them, at least to see how the two styles compare.
The first story is titled "How We Got in Town and Out Again", and is a post-apocalyptic story that's not really about being in a post-apocalypse at all. Lethem doesn't overlook how society changes in such an environment, but neither does his focus stay on survival, nor does he try to make the story about humans being the worst monsters of all. Instead, he examines the use of entertainment as a source of distraction. His narrator is a sixteen-year-old boy who has a naive view of the world, and he's traveling with a twenty-year-old woman who's more jaded and fatalistic. Together, they join a virtual-reality circus in order to move into a town, where it's easier to survive. The two form a view into this future that's comprehensive, though we have to fill in some of the blanks, since Lewis, the narrator, doesn't always understand what it is he's seeing.
The second story, "The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom", may or may not be a pastiche of Heinlein's "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag". The title certainly suggests that it is, as does the subtitle, but Lethem himself mentions in his afterword that the story was once rejected for being too close to Heinlein's novella, so who knows? Maybe Lethem revised it to make it so after the rejection. Either way, this story, which is about a painter who starts experiencing blackouts and then finding hideous figures drawn into his paintings, has a theme similar to Heinlein's story. Lethem's version is well-crafted and compelling (Hornebom hires a private investigator to find out what's happening to his paintings), and it treads into surreal waters. After reading As She Climbed Across the Table, I've come to expect nothing but originality from Lethem, and even if this story is based on Heinlein's work, it's still like nothing you've read before.
It's disappointing to see that Lethem has moved out of genre fiction entirely. His stories have always been thoughtful and moving and readable, even when they're about subjects in which I have no interest ("Vanilla Dunk" has stayed with me, twenty years after having read it), and his genre stories stood alone among all the other writers. Even though I know his literary stories would be just as good, I find myself uninterested in them without that view into the fantastic. Maybe one of these days I'll read one of them, at least to see how the two styles compare.
October 9, 2008
Have I ever told you how much Lethem rocks my socks? Probably not. Fortress of Solitude had a big impact on me, this short book with two novellas promises the same.
And...it did. I liked the second story better than the first, but that's because my interest in post-apocalyptic SF has been dwindling as Bush keeps making decisions to draw an apocalypse upon us.
"How We Got In Town and Out Again" is a combination of 30s dance contests and virtual reality. IN THE FUTURE. Food is scarce, cities are distrusting of outsiders and can deny strangers access. Two friends hook up with a traveling carnival-esque show in order to enter the nearest town, then they become part of the main act.
"The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom" is an homage to Robert Heinlein, but not so much in an futuristic, SF way. More like in a present day, bat-shit-crazy-stuff-is-happening way. The premise: that artist that makes sad clowns that grace the walls of dentist & doctors offices? Yeah, he's still alive. He hires a P.I. to investigate his black outs, especially because he's painting some interesting but highly disturbing images during said black outs. She shadows him Harriet the Spy-style, is both creeped out and almost arrested, then teams up with a grad student to solve the case. They steal stuff from a museum that blows open the case and endangers everyone. The Partridge Family holds one of them hostage. And the weird world keeps rolling on...
There's also a neat little afterword in the book about how Lethem decides what stories go in what collection, how he argues with his editor, and going into the background of each story a bit. Ta-da!
And...it did. I liked the second story better than the first, but that's because my interest in post-apocalyptic SF has been dwindling as Bush keeps making decisions to draw an apocalypse upon us.
"How We Got In Town and Out Again" is a combination of 30s dance contests and virtual reality. IN THE FUTURE. Food is scarce, cities are distrusting of outsiders and can deny strangers access. Two friends hook up with a traveling carnival-esque show in order to enter the nearest town, then they become part of the main act.
"The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom" is an homage to Robert Heinlein, but not so much in an futuristic, SF way. More like in a present day, bat-shit-crazy-stuff-is-happening way. The premise: that artist that makes sad clowns that grace the walls of dentist & doctors offices? Yeah, he's still alive. He hires a P.I. to investigate his black outs, especially because he's painting some interesting but highly disturbing images during said black outs. She shadows him Harriet the Spy-style, is both creeped out and almost arrested, then teams up with a grad student to solve the case. They steal stuff from a museum that blows open the case and endangers everyone. The Partridge Family holds one of them hostage. And the weird world keeps rolling on...
There's also a neat little afterword in the book about how Lethem decides what stories go in what collection, how he argues with his editor, and going into the background of each story a bit. Ta-da!
February 2, 2008
It's been a while since I read any Lethem, and I was glad to come back to him. I purchased this book a while ago but it's been sitting on the shelf. Because so many compared it to This Shape We're In I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.
Both stories were engaging and reminded me of the second Lethem I came to know. My first experience was with As She Climbed Across The Table which I bought at the Bennington College bookstore while working there one summer and read while walking home and then sitting outside of the house where I was living.
After reading that I started with things like Amnesia Moon -- and this reminded me more of that. The first story was reminiscent of some of the stories in "Men and Cartoons", but I enjoyed it more. I had a great picture in my head the entire time I read it. The two characters followed are easy to be intrigued with, and keep you guessing. The story moves quickly and left me wanting more, but in a good way.
The second piece reminded me a great deal of Gun... Music. I loved all of the characters, and the scenes with the television were awesomely funny and disturbing. Kind of a Willy Wonka flashback for the grownups.
I don't want to give anything away... just like the sleeve of the book. I'd say if you're a fan of Lethem's more sci-fiy stuff, this is definitely for you. Actually, I bet a fan of any of his works would enjoy it.
Both stories were engaging and reminded me of the second Lethem I came to know. My first experience was with As She Climbed Across The Table which I bought at the Bennington College bookstore while working there one summer and read while walking home and then sitting outside of the house where I was living.
After reading that I started with things like Amnesia Moon -- and this reminded me more of that. The first story was reminiscent of some of the stories in "Men and Cartoons", but I enjoyed it more. I had a great picture in my head the entire time I read it. The two characters followed are easy to be intrigued with, and keep you guessing. The story moves quickly and left me wanting more, but in a good way.
The second piece reminded me a great deal of Gun... Music. I loved all of the characters, and the scenes with the television were awesomely funny and disturbing. Kind of a Willy Wonka flashback for the grownups.
I don't want to give anything away... just like the sleeve of the book. I'd say if you're a fan of Lethem's more sci-fiy stuff, this is definitely for you. Actually, I bet a fan of any of his works would enjoy it.
January 13, 2008
I really had no idea what style of book I was getting myself into, nor did I have any plot information. The sleeve on this book is (in my best guess) intentionally left blank by the author. The pro of this is that it's impossible to have any expectations going in. The con is it took me a couple pages into the second story to realize I was not reading part II of the first story.
Still, really interesting writing style- the fast novella, short story is supposed to keep the reader on his toes, which this author was very successful in doing. I had a lot of questions while I was reading, which is part of what keeps the pages a-turning, and all of the important ones were answered by the end. The author takes a couple of hair-pin turns into the absurd, so be prepared.
I'm not going to mention any plot points or provide commentary on what the book(s) are about, because to do so would negate the purpose of the blank sleeve. However, I will say that it was a great short read, and would recommend it to any sci-fi fan.
Still, really interesting writing style- the fast novella, short story is supposed to keep the reader on his toes, which this author was very successful in doing. I had a lot of questions while I was reading, which is part of what keeps the pages a-turning, and all of the important ones were answered by the end. The author takes a couple of hair-pin turns into the absurd, so be prepared.
I'm not going to mention any plot points or provide commentary on what the book(s) are about, because to do so would negate the purpose of the blank sleeve. However, I will say that it was a great short read, and would recommend it to any sci-fi fan.
September 21, 2009
This short book consists of two Lethem short stories left out of his two short story collections. The first,"How We Got in Town and Out Again", is the story of two youngsters roaming a post-apocalypse landscape, and become caught up in what can only be described as the seediest VR computer game, organized in the style of a danceathon. This story is solid and satisfying and works on many thematic levels. I'd say it'd be hard not to like, but would not blow anyone away. Four stars.
The second story, which starts out amazingly well, "The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom", sadly descends into a surrealistic, silly territory, when I personally had hoped it would continue in it's initial, almost horror, vein. Still, parts of it a terribly effective and might be the right up someone's alley. Just not mine. Two stars.
So, two plus four divided by two equals an overall three stars. Probably recommended for Lethem completists only.
The second story, which starts out amazingly well, "The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom", sadly descends into a surrealistic, silly territory, when I personally had hoped it would continue in it's initial, almost horror, vein. Still, parts of it a terribly effective and might be the right up someone's alley. Just not mine. Two stars.
So, two plus four divided by two equals an overall three stars. Probably recommended for Lethem completists only.
July 5, 2013
i don't know what it is, but i'm just not that into lethem and yet i want to read more by him. i want to be more into lethem. i'm trying as hard as i can. in the afterword, he says he's naturally a novelist as far as writing is concerned and so far i've read some essays and short stories by him. sooooo...i'm going to pick up one of his novels next and then maybe i'll see what's really going on.
his ability to hybridize within the stories is fun...style is very apt. i thought pacing was off in general, so it lacked interest for me.
his ability to hybridize within the stories is fun...style is very apt. i thought pacing was off in general, so it lacked interest for me.
June 28, 2016
The two novellas in How We Got Insipid are rich and engaging. Both are quirky; both feel like they could easily have been expanded into larger works, but I trust Lethem's instinct here. The first story is a brief discussion of virtual reality, and it has some curious political overtones. The second is almost Lovecraft inspired in its way. I always enjoy Lethem's writing, but these two pieces draw more from his imagination than his signature prose, which is rather muted in these pages. A pleasant read, all in all, but not a great work--just an earnest and interesting little contribution.
August 13, 2007
Collecting two of his novellas, How We Got Insipid displays Lethem's science fiction skills only partially unveiled in his more well known novels. From a virtual reality snowman friend to an evil bird alter ego, these stories are quirky but wildly engaging even in the small amount of pages used. Perfect for a quick read and time better spent than reading Lethem's latest novel (in my opinion, of course).
January 10, 2008
This volume collects two of Jonathan Lethem's longer short stories not included in his previously published collections. I have enjoyed Lethem's evolution from his early mostly-sf novels to his recent work--grounded in our world, but still containing touches of the fantastic. These two stories demonstrate that evolution and remind me, quite succinctly, of what hooked me on Lethem originally and why I consider him my favorite contemporary author.
April 28, 2014
While i really enjoyed quite a few of elements of these stories, once I read the afterword it felt a lot clearer to me - that these stories were essentially outtakes from his previous collections that he just didn't want to let go of. For the most part, I would have been fine letting these go, but I'm a sucker for anything Lethem, so I'm glad i read this.
February 3, 2012
The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom (Hommage Heinlein) was such a wonderful short story. I recommend it for anyone who has ever wondered what the subconscious world of surrealist artists would look like intermingled with modern day life, detective style.
June 23, 2010
A couple of inventive if not entirely memorable stories.
July 3, 2011
Clever and startling. Complexity and nuance are brought to life in the action of the story, with a minimal approach to explanation. An odd, prescient gem.
August 2, 2011
Great!
October 12, 2013
I was engrossed; am angry at these stories for being short.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews