Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 9/15/2008 + 774 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

Doctorow's a really interesting person editor of the blog BoingBoing.net (which always has links to really cool stuff on a regular basis), college dropout and professor at the University of California, Locus & Campbell Award winner & Nebula nominee, pro-Creative Commons activist, and all-around emblem of geek-cool.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town is Doctorows third novel, but the first Ive read. Stylistically and thematically, it reminded me of Will Shetterly-meets-Neil Gaiman-meets-Neal Stephenson
Its a hard book to describe because its very odd. The someone is Alan (or at least, his name starts with an A.) He knows hes not human. Or is he? His father is a mountain, and his mother, a washing machine. (Literally. However, the book isnt as absurdist as that fact would make you guess.) He has brothers all at least as strange as he and some of them much more sinister.
Alan is the one who can most easily pass and when the book opens, he has moved into town, fixed up a house, and is planning to write something great, for posterity. However, events may have something else in mind all too soon, hes mixed up with the girl next door (who has her own bizarre secrets), and is also drawn into the schemes of a new friend, a punk rocker with dreams of free wireless access for all
I do think the structure of the book would have been improved if its ideas (which Doctorow shows obvious enthusiasm for) had more strongly intersected with or been more relevant to the fantastic elements but still, this was a strikingly original and entertaining book.
As with all of Doctorows works, he has made the entire text of the novel downloadable for free its at: http://craphound.com/someone/download.php.

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