What do you think?
Rate this book
Zen City
The world of ZEN CITY is a world of passionate the desire for power, the desire for order, and the desire for self-transcendence. ZEN CITY is a story about the struggle and violence of people who see themselves as striving for the ultimate. Along the way, ZEN CITY presents a sly critique of the practice and perversions of imported spirituality in twentieth-century America.
136 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2016
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 20, 2017
William Burroughs—Buddha—buh?!? Whatthehell did I just read? Is Eliot Fintushel some sort of bodhisattva gone slumming, a spiritual tourist from the post-apocalypse, or... is he, is Zen City, some surreal something else?
Whatever it is—however hard it is to categorize—Zen City is without doubt a very brief novel (just 122 pages) about some very big ideas.
It starts pretty small, though. Big Man and Angela, Pirate, No Mind and Clara, are aspirants, perennial supplicants, meditating and hoping someday to get into Zen City. In the meantime, they live in cramped and whimsically-named spaces like the Blue Plymouth Hotel, the Chevelle House and the Lincoln Continental Inn, all parked permanently on the Old On Ramp that leads to the disused freeway that leads to Zen City, all part of the Big Jam that blocked off this road a decade ago.
This much, we've seen before—the endless, permanent traffic jam that started showing up in science fiction almost as soon as we started building superhighways in the first place. But the catastrophe that caused this particular breakdown... that, I think, is something new to SF.
Or maybe not. As they say, what goes around, comes around.
Life on the Old On Ramp actually seems fairly comfortable, if rather directionless, but even so Big Man and Pirate and the rest keep trying to get into the City. That's where the food is, after all—all but strictly rationed amounts that get doled out to non-CityZens, along with free canned beers called Circenses (as in, "panem et circenses" ). Playing politics with hunger... sometimes one has to wonder just how enlightened the CityZens are, after all.
It seems to me that perhaps Enlightenment is an asymptote, anyway—one can approach such a state, but never achieve it (at least, not and return to talk about it). Bodhisattvas would just be a little farther along the curve than most, reaching down along its slope to haul up others...
Ironically (though also perhaps intentionally), Zen City never ventures into the City itself. The struggle is to learn not to struggle, and by not-struggling eventually to enter the city-state of Zen. All we ever see first-hand of that struggle (that is not a struggle) is the effect on its supplicants.
The publisher of this book, Zer0 Books, has a manifesto:
But maybe it doesn't need to. Maybe all Zen City needs to do is whack you in the head with a stick, metaphorically, repeatedly, its short sharp shocks to the mind eventually bringing forth clarity—or unconsciousness.
And thus the student achieved Enlightenment...
Whatever it is—however hard it is to categorize—Zen City is without doubt a very brief novel (just 122 pages) about some very big ideas.
It starts pretty small, though. Big Man and Angela, Pirate, No Mind and Clara, are aspirants, perennial supplicants, meditating and hoping someday to get into Zen City. In the meantime, they live in cramped and whimsically-named spaces like the Blue Plymouth Hotel, the Chevelle House and the Lincoln Continental Inn, all parked permanently on the Old On Ramp that leads to the disused freeway that leads to Zen City, all part of the Big Jam that blocked off this road a decade ago.
This much, we've seen before—the endless, permanent traffic jam that started showing up in science fiction almost as soon as we started building superhighways in the first place. But the catastrophe that caused this particular breakdown... that, I think, is something new to SF.
Or maybe not. As they say, what goes around, comes around.
Life on the Old On Ramp actually seems fairly comfortable, if rather directionless, but even so Big Man and Pirate and the rest keep trying to get into the City. That's where the food is, after all—all but strictly rationed amounts that get doled out to non-CityZens, along with free canned beers called Circenses (as in, "panem et circenses" ). Playing politics with hunger... sometimes one has to wonder just how enlightened the CityZens are, after all.
It seems to me that perhaps Enlightenment is an asymptote, anyway—one can approach such a state, but never achieve it (at least, not and return to talk about it). Bodhisattvas would just be a little farther along the curve than most, reaching down along its slope to haul up others...
Ironically (though also perhaps intentionally), Zen City never ventures into the City itself. The struggle is to learn not to struggle, and by not-struggling eventually to enter the city-state of Zen. All we ever see first-hand of that struggle (that is not a struggle) is the effect on its supplicants.
The publisher of this book, Zer0 Books, has a manifesto:
"A cretinous anti-intellectualism presides{...}"This does not appear until after Zen City ends—which is a good thing, I think, because as accurate as its assessment is, I'm still not sure how, or whether, this novel fits into Zer0's overall project.
—p.123
But maybe it doesn't need to. Maybe all Zen City needs to do is whack you in the head with a stick, metaphorically, repeatedly, its short sharp shocks to the mind eventually bringing forth clarity—or unconsciousness.
And thus the student achieved Enlightenment...
December 2, 2019
This distopian book must be one of the most unusual books I've read. It reminds me slightly of Flatland as it deals in part with ideas that revolve around space. Like Flatland dealt with 2-D space this one deals with multiple objects inhabiting the same space at the same time. The author tries to explain it as best he can and he does a good job I think - it's just a very unusual idea!
The plot follows several characters - Big Man, Pirate, Angela and No Mind - as they try to sneak into the City through a secret back door passage. The City is the ultimate goal for inhabitants of this world. But to get in, you must have perfect Zen. And the City seems to be this confusing "many things existing in the same place" thing. One example used in the book was a person's mouth sharing the same place as a washing machine so you would feel the clothing on your tongue. These bizarre statements are placed throughout the story and I had problems trying to understand it. It's just so strange!
Will they reach the city? Is the City the paradise they think it really is said to be? What lurks in the secret catacombs underground they have to shimmy through?
The story is not really bad...it just has some concepts that are a bit hard to grasp. I have a hard time understanding how such a place would function.
The plot follows several characters - Big Man, Pirate, Angela and No Mind - as they try to sneak into the City through a secret back door passage. The City is the ultimate goal for inhabitants of this world. But to get in, you must have perfect Zen. And the City seems to be this confusing "many things existing in the same place" thing. One example used in the book was a person's mouth sharing the same place as a washing machine so you would feel the clothing on your tongue. These bizarre statements are placed throughout the story and I had problems trying to understand it. It's just so strange!
Will they reach the city? Is the City the paradise they think it really is said to be? What lurks in the secret catacombs underground they have to shimmy through?
The story is not really bad...it just has some concepts that are a bit hard to grasp. I have a hard time understanding how such a place would function.
November 29, 2018
I've loved everything else I've read by Eliot Fintushel (including all his stories in Asimov's), but this, not so much. It's very brainy (which is not a bad thing) and not very accessible (which is, imo). And I don't think it really comes together. None of the characters are particularly likable, and in fact they're not all that distinguishable from each other. Wait, that's the premise of the City, the idea that all are one. (And maybe all are merged physically as well, in an unappetizing way? I never could tell.)
I also never figured out if the Voices or the telepathic tagging were manifestations of the transcat(egorial)s or something else, nor why the transcats took an interest in people. The Zen trappings were fun, as were some of the odd not-human characters and some of the situations. But the long, tortuous journey through the system of caves left me an impression of the book as dark, plodding, and claustrophobic.
Oh, and I lived for 12 years in a community where, if you weren't enlightened at any given moment, you were uncool. So I found that aspect of the book hilarious.
I also never figured out if the Voices or the telepathic tagging were manifestations of the transcat(egorial)s or something else, nor why the transcats took an interest in people. The Zen trappings were fun, as were some of the odd not-human characters and some of the situations. But the long, tortuous journey through the system of caves left me an impression of the book as dark, plodding, and claustrophobic.
Oh, and I lived for 12 years in a community where, if you weren't enlightened at any given moment, you were uncool. So I found that aspect of the book hilarious.
December 11, 2016
This is a book that requires a lot of effort. It deals with concepts that are quite difficult to pin down and this is coupled with a surrealist style that makes the narrative difficult to follow. That being said, there is lots to praise here. The author has crafted a work of depth that would benefit from re-reading. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, but it is definitely an interesting creative exercise.
April 18, 2018
Has some great ideas, but feels very rushed.
October 28, 2024
Tries to be philosophical, but it does not work.
September 19, 2016
A very strange book. Science fiction combines with Naked Lunch weirdness to create an allegory of Buddhism in America. It works. I'm giving the book 4 stars, but I recommend it with a caveat: It's not going to make much sense to anyone who hasn't been involved with one or more Buddhist communities.
I still can't fathom how this obscure book landed in on the shelf of my local small town public library.
I still can't fathom how this obscure book landed in on the shelf of my local small town public library.
July 21, 2016
“The future begins with a traffic jam.”
This is how Eliot Fintushel describes the setting of Zen City (Zero Books, 2016), his science fiction novel about the obstacles encountered along the journey for spiritual fulfillment. (I had the pleasure of interviewing him for the New Books Network. You can listen to the interview here: http://newbooksnetwork.com/eliot-fint...)
In Fintushel's book, the quest for enlightenment manifests as a physical journey as his protagonist, Big Man, makes his way from an eternal traffic jam (in which people have been rooted so long on a highway exit ramp that they’ve created cults around their Econoline vans and Chevrolet Chevelles) to the City, where those who have achieved true enlightenment are literally merged into a single body-consciousness that transcends reality as we know it.
More than a commentary on Buddhism, the story is a meditation on religion and the challenge of using “robes and rituals” to find enlightenment, Fintushel explains. The problem is when enlightenment itself becomes a sign of status, he says, undermining the goal of enlightenment, which is supposedly a state of “no status.”
Fintushel’s adventure is both poetic and funny, meditating on language as much as belief. He is playing with the “limits of identifying things,” evoking the viewpoint of a baby. “If you watch a baby’s eyes moving around, they don’t fix on objects or even on people the way we do. They don’t have categories of objects and people. And I’m assuming, for the sake of the fiction anyway, that that’s more real than the reality of objects and things and people.”
This is how Eliot Fintushel describes the setting of Zen City (Zero Books, 2016), his science fiction novel about the obstacles encountered along the journey for spiritual fulfillment. (I had the pleasure of interviewing him for the New Books Network. You can listen to the interview here: http://newbooksnetwork.com/eliot-fint...)
In Fintushel's book, the quest for enlightenment manifests as a physical journey as his protagonist, Big Man, makes his way from an eternal traffic jam (in which people have been rooted so long on a highway exit ramp that they’ve created cults around their Econoline vans and Chevrolet Chevelles) to the City, where those who have achieved true enlightenment are literally merged into a single body-consciousness that transcends reality as we know it.
More than a commentary on Buddhism, the story is a meditation on religion and the challenge of using “robes and rituals” to find enlightenment, Fintushel explains. The problem is when enlightenment itself becomes a sign of status, he says, undermining the goal of enlightenment, which is supposedly a state of “no status.”
Fintushel’s adventure is both poetic and funny, meditating on language as much as belief. He is playing with the “limits of identifying things,” evoking the viewpoint of a baby. “If you watch a baby’s eyes moving around, they don’t fix on objects or even on people the way we do. They don’t have categories of objects and people. And I’m assuming, for the sake of the fiction anyway, that that’s more real than the reality of objects and things and people.”
Want to Read
April 30, 2016PW Starred: Author and performance artist Fintushel (Breakfast with the Ones You Love) blends Asian philosophy with science fiction in a mind-melting exploration of love, loss, and cultural appropriation. Like every other “hick” on the outside of the City, Big Man dreams of gaining access to it: a place of pure Buddha-nature, where every inhabitant has abandoned desire and reached a state of absolute oneness. Unable to enter by official channels, Big Man enlists the help of his would-be lover, Angela, to sneak in through a back way. In the process, he attracts the attention of the supposed bodhisattva No Mind and the less-than-holy Buddhist teacher Bobo Shin, who pursue him into the City for their own ends. Each character is fascinatingly developed in a somewhat Dadaist fashion, all while moving the plot along. Fintushel’s goal is never to mock or deride Buddhism itself, but rather to expose the ways in which the Eightfold Path is corrupted by human nature; in that regard, this book succeeds brilliantly, deftly weaving a tragic romance that’s about all of us, and none at all. (June)
November 8, 2016
A SIMPLE MAN'S REVIEW:
Do Buddhists use psychedelic mushrooms? Now we know at least one does!
This book is impossible to describe because the nonsensical nature defies description. At the most basic level, it is the journey of a man as he tries to become spiritual enough to enter the great city. But that story takes place in a dystopian, Dr. Seuss-inspired nightmare of creatures and ridiculous settings. It often doesn't make sense at the micro level but the larger story allows the continuity to remain intact.
One of the comments on the book stated that one layer was meant to be looked at as a criticism of America's religious situation. Maybe. But if there was a point to be made, it gets lost in the absurdity of the details.
The book is a short read but there isn't much "meat" to get out of it. If you decide to venture in anyway, don't let the introduction stop you. It starts with a few pages of spiritual psychobabble but then calms down as the story begins.
Otherwise, I'd skip this one.
Do Buddhists use psychedelic mushrooms? Now we know at least one does!
This book is impossible to describe because the nonsensical nature defies description. At the most basic level, it is the journey of a man as he tries to become spiritual enough to enter the great city. But that story takes place in a dystopian, Dr. Seuss-inspired nightmare of creatures and ridiculous settings. It often doesn't make sense at the micro level but the larger story allows the continuity to remain intact.
One of the comments on the book stated that one layer was meant to be looked at as a criticism of America's religious situation. Maybe. But if there was a point to be made, it gets lost in the absurdity of the details.
The book is a short read but there isn't much "meat" to get out of it. If you decide to venture in anyway, don't let the introduction stop you. It starts with a few pages of spiritual psychobabble but then calms down as the story begins.
Otherwise, I'd skip this one.
Want to Read
July 23, 2016Author was interviewed on a New Books podcast
October 10, 2016
Zen City is like nothing I've ever read before, an eccentric book indeed. But the brillant author knows Zen philosophy and scifi, and the art of weaving them together to create a unique urban tale.
January 18, 2017
This book is so nonsensical and disjointed that it's nearly impossible to follow. Not worth the effort when there are so many other potential reads.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews