What do you think?
Rate this book
Topiary
Summer The War ignites a galaxy of screens. 24/7. For the Adman, a former copywriter for The Ad Agency, there's no way out but "in." He becomes an "indoor landscaper" or "horticultural technician," for a company called "Topiary Techniques." He tends the potted flora of The City's Corporations in order to "get back to the land." He keeps the green growing in potted oases strewn about offices, cubicles, lobbies, and executive suites. The former Adman becomes "Plantman," and in the spirit of Don Quixote, begins a dizzying journey into the dystopia of The City's false history and "executive statutes" enacted to control the epidemic of Viral Deviants (VDs) and the Missing Young, who flow into The City from hot June till the first scholarly summons of September.
377 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2024
Artistry in the truest sense!
Engel has penned what many reviewers compare to works like 1984, Brave New World, or Naked Lunch,to name a few, but I think that may be looking a little too deep, which isn't a bad thing, I just didn't see it that way myself.
When I began reading, the first two 'chapters' - nothing herein can be classified in the fashionable sense of the literary establishment - were disjointed, the concepts incongruous, but I soon realized where we, the readers, were going in this acid trip - come to think of it, perhaps this is more appropriately comparable to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- to a dystopian utopia; yes, an oxymoron, and I believe this is what Engel was intimating; a future that could be any time. In my humble opinion, the message delivered here is not at all about the future, rather it is a glaring indictment of today, not unlike Swift's A Modest Proposal, excepting no need to hide his disdain for our ruling class behind satire, and no mention of devouring a child. Read from the point of view of a man or woman living in the 21st century, when you can dissociate your point of view from someday and bring it to now, and it is easy to see the parallels to the world in which we now live; perhaps our world is not quite so cold, so barren, so bereft of feeling, but the big picture is dismally the same.
This book is not so much a story as it is a collection of random yet oddly related thoughts, resplendent, while miraculously simple, in its description of me, you, he, she and our journey to wherever it is that we think we are going. This read is certainly not light, and I don't recommend this to anyone that is not ready to take on something of large aesthetic quality and written in unconventional prose, knowing there's no real destination, just the pilgrimage.
Thoroughly enjoyable, this book will change the way that you look at yourself and all that surrounds you. Again, all of this humbly offered...
Engel has penned what many reviewers compare to works like 1984, Brave New World, or Naked Lunch,to name a few, but I think that may be looking a little too deep, which isn't a bad thing, I just didn't see it that way myself.
When I began reading, the first two 'chapters' - nothing herein can be classified in the fashionable sense of the literary establishment - were disjointed, the concepts incongruous, but I soon realized where we, the readers, were going in this acid trip - come to think of it, perhaps this is more appropriately comparable to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- to a dystopian utopia; yes, an oxymoron, and I believe this is what Engel was intimating; a future that could be any time. In my humble opinion, the message delivered here is not at all about the future, rather it is a glaring indictment of today, not unlike Swift's A Modest Proposal, excepting no need to hide his disdain for our ruling class behind satire, and no mention of devouring a child. Read from the point of view of a man or woman living in the 21st century, when you can dissociate your point of view from someday and bring it to now, and it is easy to see the parallels to the world in which we now live; perhaps our world is not quite so cold, so barren, so bereft of feeling, but the big picture is dismally the same.
This book is not so much a story as it is a collection of random yet oddly related thoughts, resplendent, while miraculously simple, in its description of me, you, he, she and our journey to wherever it is that we think we are going. This read is certainly not light, and I don't recommend this to anyone that is not ready to take on something of large aesthetic quality and written in unconventional prose, knowing there's no real destination, just the pilgrimage.
Thoroughly enjoyable, this book will change the way that you look at yourself and all that surrounds you. Again, all of this humbly offered...
August 3, 2016
Leaving Goodreads, don't want to be a volunteer content provider for Amazon. This review is now available on LibraryThing, username CSRodgers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews