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Gojiro
The Coma Boy, Hiroshima's most celebrated survivor of the atom bomb, shares an unbreakable pact with Gojiro, a monstrous, lizard-like creature and together they face Joseph Prometheus--the inventor of the bomb that made them who they are. Original.
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 1, 2022
My copy of Gojiro opens the legal page with the guarantee that "This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition. NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED." I could use that kind of reassurance more often in life.
I can only call the opening of this book horrendous. The reader is treated to nearly 100 pages of contextless philosophical rambling, spelling out a philosophy of change, life and evolution peculiar to Gojiro, the monster of the title, and Komodo, his human friend. This section could be converted to script format without losing anything in the telling. Thankfully the book becomes slightly more visual once they leave their island home and travel to America, but only barely. This is still a story in which people are highly prone to going on long philosophical monologues, but at least once there was something of a plot for them to cohere around, they actually managed to acquire some meaning.
In fact, the story becomes oddly kinetic. The reader is constantly bounced between odd images and happenings. It seemed from the early sections the story would be about how Gojiro got to where he was, psychologically speaking. But that question is actually resolved pretty quickly, it becomes more of a story of getting him out of his mental hole. Part of what makes the opening so annoying is that it's told almost entirely from Gojiro's view - long-winded, glib, self-pitying, cowardly, the whole package. Gojiro is much more tolerable when counterbalanced by Komodo, who, while also very long-winded, forms the yang to Gojiro's yin as a much more positively minded person. While he also has his failings, he doesn't have Gojiro's tendency to wallow.
The other characters are much more sketchy. Sheila is mostly an image of a tormented woman, Shig is an enigma who functions mostly as a plot device, Ebi is a Pollyanna. This book is carried entirely by Komodo and Gojiro, and I found it pretty touching. But what really appealed to me was the bizarreness of the plot and the jerky, jargony Gibson-like quality of the language. I really love stories that can bring together a multitude of seemingly totally disparate elements, and I think Gojiro managed that admirably. It was maybe excessively complicated with time jumps, visions of the past and future, bizarre terminology, and more, but it managed to tie it all together much better than I expected. I suppose the basic story - two misfits confronting the one who made them that way, and finding a way forward in life, is pretty simple, but the way all the motifs and complications come together in the end justifies them to me. I can forgive a lot for a novel that's willing to get weird, from the idea of a "mass reading of the retard parts of the The Sound and the Fury to a new species of fish whose sole habitat is a large mall fountain and waterworks.
I was disappointed in how little the idea of Godzilla actually figures into the story, though, aside from the brief appearances of the movies. Gojiro himself spends the majority of the novel shrunk down to either human or lizard size, and even the few scenes where he isn't, don't really use his size to any real degree, except the finale. It seems more like riding off the name recognition than anything.
I can only call the opening of this book horrendous. The reader is treated to nearly 100 pages of contextless philosophical rambling, spelling out a philosophy of change, life and evolution peculiar to Gojiro, the monster of the title, and Komodo, his human friend. This section could be converted to script format without losing anything in the telling. Thankfully the book becomes slightly more visual once they leave their island home and travel to America, but only barely. This is still a story in which people are highly prone to going on long philosophical monologues, but at least once there was something of a plot for them to cohere around, they actually managed to acquire some meaning.
In fact, the story becomes oddly kinetic. The reader is constantly bounced between odd images and happenings. It seemed from the early sections the story would be about how Gojiro got to where he was, psychologically speaking. But that question is actually resolved pretty quickly, it becomes more of a story of getting him out of his mental hole. Part of what makes the opening so annoying is that it's told almost entirely from Gojiro's view - long-winded, glib, self-pitying, cowardly, the whole package. Gojiro is much more tolerable when counterbalanced by Komodo, who, while also very long-winded, forms the yang to Gojiro's yin as a much more positively minded person. While he also has his failings, he doesn't have Gojiro's tendency to wallow.
The other characters are much more sketchy. Sheila is mostly an image of a tormented woman, Shig is an enigma who functions mostly as a plot device, Ebi is a Pollyanna. This book is carried entirely by Komodo and Gojiro, and I found it pretty touching. But what really appealed to me was the bizarreness of the plot and the jerky, jargony Gibson-like quality of the language. I really love stories that can bring together a multitude of seemingly totally disparate elements, and I think Gojiro managed that admirably. It was maybe excessively complicated with time jumps, visions of the past and future, bizarre terminology, and more, but it managed to tie it all together much better than I expected. I suppose the basic story - two misfits confronting the one who made them that way, and finding a way forward in life, is pretty simple, but the way all the motifs and complications come together in the end justifies them to me. I can forgive a lot for a novel that's willing to get weird, from the idea of a "mass reading of the retard parts of the The Sound and the Fury to a new species of fish whose sole habitat is a large mall fountain and waterworks.
I was disappointed in how little the idea of Godzilla actually figures into the story, though, aside from the brief appearances of the movies. Gojiro himself spends the majority of the novel shrunk down to either human or lizard size, and even the few scenes where he isn't, don't really use his size to any real degree, except the finale. It seems more like riding off the name recognition than anything.
November 13, 2019
Some interesting things that I definitely enjoyed, but also fairly jumbled and wandering. Godzilla as the immortal yet suicidal hero is a good hook and made for a fun beginning, but eventually it rambled into a pseudo-philosophical what’s it all mean road trip story that I found less gripping.
If you’re into kaiju and Scott Pilgrim, you might really like this.
If you’re into kaiju and Scott Pilgrim, you might really like this.
August 6, 2022
Not a big fan of the storytelling as it is just seems confused and runs on about random things. I get the idea that it is supposed to be thoughts of the main character Gojiro and reflect how real people think. But just not a fan of that style of writing. The ideas are great and I would love to actually read a book with a Kaiju as the main character interacting with humans as if it was normal but not a fan of the execution.
March 31, 2024
Did not finish this one. I could not get into it.
March 1, 2017
This is the story of a monster and his boy...and the world that was wrought by the heater...and what (if anything) can be learned from the Quadcameral, Gojiro's titanic brain...and the cosmo of beams and bunches...and an ancient scientist...and a very special radiation-poisoned girl.
Gojiro's a difficult one to measure. On one hand, large stretches of it (mainly near the middle) drag on with little actually happening, tempting me to put it down for a while. On the other hand, when it's good it's superb. I laugh. I cry. I am disgusted and refuse to give it another look for a month. If an author can make me feel something, she's done more than most, and Gojiro makes me feel lots of things.
Yes, it meanders, and yes, it's confusing. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that at times Gojiro really does not know what it wants to be. Writers go their entire lives trying to figure out how to create something with a tenth the style and flare of Gojiro; most of them never get anywhere close. Gojiro drips postwar, post-modern funk. It might be worth a read just for that, if it didn't have a narrative so weird that, a quarter through it, you've already decided that whatever challenges lie ahead, you'll go the distance to see if the pact that binds Komodo and Gojiro, allowing the saddest monster in the universe to find release in death, ever does its terrible work.
Gojiro's a difficult one to measure. On one hand, large stretches of it (mainly near the middle) drag on with little actually happening, tempting me to put it down for a while. On the other hand, when it's good it's superb. I laugh. I cry. I am disgusted and refuse to give it another look for a month. If an author can make me feel something, she's done more than most, and Gojiro makes me feel lots of things.
Yes, it meanders, and yes, it's confusing. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that at times Gojiro really does not know what it wants to be. Writers go their entire lives trying to figure out how to create something with a tenth the style and flare of Gojiro; most of them never get anywhere close. Gojiro drips postwar, post-modern funk. It might be worth a read just for that, if it didn't have a narrative so weird that, a quarter through it, you've already decided that whatever challenges lie ahead, you'll go the distance to see if the pact that binds Komodo and Gojiro, allowing the saddest monster in the universe to find release in death, ever does its terrible work.
January 4, 2017
If someone ever asks you what Postmodernism is, tell them to read this book. Yes, on the surface it's a wild, weird, sweet, and hilarious tale of a monster and his boy, but beneath that, it's so much more. It's about humanity struggling to come to terms with the unimaginably horrific things we did out in the desert and over Japan in 1945, struggling to assimilate the realities of the Nuclear Age into our identity in a way that unflinchingly acknowledges the past, but also affirms life and keeps the barrel out of our collective mouths. It's about fusing and transmuting horror and hope into a future worth living in, and poking fun at the ways we avoid that responsibility in the meantime.
October 16, 2009
I was turned on to this book in junior high when a friend's dad interviewed the author on his radio show. I read it, and liked it, but certainly there were things I didn't get at that age. I like to think that I understand it a little better now, and still enjoy re-reading it every 5 years or so. The author does a good job of creating a new language for his characters.
October 22, 2007
an interesting Tale of Godzilla, being and intellectual creature with is best friend, a Japanese boy and how they provided a home for children deformed but the atomic bomb, and how is gets mixed up in hollywood, not something I would normally chose, but it was recommended and I enjoed it.
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June 25, 2009I read this book when I was around 12, and HATED it because it wasn't like a Godzilla story. Looking back I was expecting the wrong thing, and now I have to reread it as an adult and see if it's any good as what it actually is.
April 20, 2010
I wanted to love this book. I really did. I tries. I love the concept, but I found the execution to be... well, 'tedious' is not too strong a word here. Tehre are certainly worse books, but I can't say I'd recommend this at all.
February 21, 2014
Bizarre take on the Godzilla mythos... Sort of. The first half was brilliantly wrought with dark humor... Including mutant children and the Hollywood grind. Then it gets a bit bogged down and plodding. I was surprised at the upbeat ending...
October 16, 2014
My rating on this book is my own personal rating, not meant to sway if you are a fan of the author, and like his style of writing. I found this book, and decided to read it based on the back cover description. Not what I expected at all. Maybe some day I can read it knowing what to expect.
August 16, 2007
If it's not obvious by my moniker, I love this book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews