MOCKINGBIRD
Scarce uncorrected proof (stated) of this bleak future fiction from the author of cult classics QUEEN'S GAMBIT and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.
Near fine.
Price: $300.00
MOCKINGBIRD
"I think if I had not learned how to read I would not have been interested in her. Only frightened."
Nebula Award-nominated science fiction novel of a melancholy android who remembers how to read when the human masses have forgotten everything but their credo of "Inwardness, Privacy, Self-Fulfillment, Pleasure." Far from the worst set of values to hold: but a world of "Pleasure" that excludes novel-reading is an inherent dystopia, if one is an depressive android, or a novel-reader. Called an "unofficial sequel to FAHRENHEIT 451" by a contemporary reviewer for its thematic concerns, which include an old-style post-'60s moral panic over too much birth control and too many readily available good drugs, along with a genuinely moving romantic spirit. Tevis, whose novels had an astonishingly high rate of brilliant film and television adaptations – THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, THE HUSTLER, THE COLOR OF MONEY, and most recently QUEEN'S GAMBIT, long-beloved as a novel and newly beloved as a series – had a rare near miss with MOCKINGBIRD, which was once under consideration for adaptation as a TV movie, and still offers great rewards to the discerning reader. As James Sallis wrote in his review of a new edition, Tevis "collapses the whole of mankind's perverse, self-destructive, indomitable history, cruelty and kindness alike," into his remarkable narrative. Decidedly uncommon in this format.
Read more: Sallis, "Books," Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 2000.
The Object
First edition. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1980. 8'' x 5.5''. Original publisher's pictorial wrappers, illustrated by Fred Marcellino. 212 pages. Spine mildly toned. Touches of shelfwear here and there. Else clean and sharp.
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