Nelson's brilliant novel reveals itself to be a contemplation on
society and existentialism...The plot delves into myriad
issues—personal responsibility, the idea of community, perception
vs. reality, differences of perspective, free will vs.
destiny—without preaching about any of them....Nelson's writing is
simple and stark, not unlike that of Kafka or that other great
existentialist-novelist, Albert Camus...Satisfying...The Boy in the
Box is above all else one man's pondering what it means to be
human.
*The Boston Globe*
AsThe Boy in the Box cuts a paranoid arc through a superficially
mundane New York, it also hauls aboard, for one, Joseph Heller, in
Smith's hilarious but frightening encounter with a couple of
cops...who call to mindCatch 22....Not to mention Philip K.
Dick...and Jorge Luis Borges...Throughout, first-time novelist
Nelson speaks with his own assured and wonderfully askew voice in
what becomes a dizzying, disorienting and shockingly entertaining
meditation on the nature of reality and the concept of free
will.
*The San Diego Tribune(Also Printedthe Florida Newsp*
A sort of AmericanCandide....Nelson does evoke the strangeness of
being alone in a new city. In the end he makes the reader realize
that the book is the box, and Smith is the boy in it—or maybe you
are. Recommended.
*Library Journal*
The reader empathizes with Smith for the apparent heartlessness,
fear, and unfriendliness of New Yorkers....Nelson has created a
wonderfully realistic world....The allusion to Franz Kafka is
evident, but Mr. Nelson has a theme and style all his own as the
reader is drawn ever tighter into the concentric circles moving not
inward, but outward into the unknown.
*The Washington Times*
A Kafka-laced concoction full of jarring, calibrated effects, for
those who take their fiction dry and chilled.
*Kirkus*
Kafkaesque...a shadowplay in a mirror, a metaphor.
*Booklist, (American Library Association)*
[Nelson] plays a cagey, Kafkaesque cat-and-mouse game with reality
and illusion...[and] manages to make the book work on two levels,
sustaining his thin plot while developing enough mysterious
atmosphere to lend events a more surreal significance....Nelson
creates an edgy, compelling world that will remind readers of Paul
Auster and cartoonist Ben Katchor.
*Publishers Weekly*
Nelson has constructed a strangely telescoped panorama of urban
life....[His] characters seem peculiar yet tangible...The Boy in
the Box is a smooth, if puzzling, read. Nelson's stripped-down
prose belies the complexity of his odd tale.
*The Philadelphia Inquirer*
Like Kafka'sThe Trial or Beckett'sWaiting for Godot, this novel is
a deceptively straightforward puzzler that yields no certain
solution....As absorbing as the narrative itself are Smith's
ruminations as he emerges from each new encounter.
*Foreword Reviews*
A harrowing and deftly written mystery....A strongly recommended,
darkly suspenseful novel.
*Midwest Book Review*
The Boy in the Box is an intriguing, well-crafted novel which
reveals itself like a perfect box, within a box, within a box....I
read it as if unwrapping a series of puzzling gifts, and only at
the end, upon unwrapping the last one, did I fully understand what
I received—and realized that I got what I wanted.
*Jack Gantos, 1998 National Book Award nominee*
Eerie, surreal, timely,The Boy in the Box will haunt you long after
you have closed its cover. Nelson has written a novel that echoes
Ionesco, Kafka, Camus, and Marx (as in Groucho, that is). It is as
strange and unsettling as our times.
*Robin Hathaway, author of The Doctor*
The Boy in the Box is deliciously disquieting and as
thought-provoking as a Zen riddle. With lean, vibrant prose, Lee J.
Nelson takes his protagonist and the reader on a search for elusive
answers that is both entertaining and insightful. The New York
backdrop is skillfully drawn.
*Michael Biehl, author of Doctored Evidence*
This first novel is a sort of American Candide. Fresh from a West Coast college and visiting New York City to find a job, the protagonist, referred to simply as Smith, immediately gets pulled into a Kafkaesque quest for a boy in a box by a deranged janitor at his apartment complex. In the next few days, the search for the hypothetical boy, reinforced by a news report of a missing child, obsesses Smith and leads him to one bizarre encounter after another until finally he is behaving like a lunatic himself. There isn't much plot or characterization here, but Nelson does evoke the strangeness of being alone in a new city. In the end, he makes the reader realize that the book is the box, and Smith is the boy in it-or maybe you are. Recommended for large public and academic libraries that support experimental fiction.-Ken St. Andre, Phoenix P.L. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Nelson's brilliant novel reveals itself to be a contemplation on
society and existentialism...The plot delves into myriad
issues-personal responsibility, the idea of community, perception
vs. reality, differences of perspective, free will vs.
destiny-without preaching about any of them....Nelson's writing is
simple and stark, not unlike that of Kafka or that other great
existentialist-novelist, Albert Camus...Satisfying...The Boy in the
Box is above all else one man's pondering what it means to be
human. -- Steve Greenlee * The Boston Globe *
AsThe Boy in the Box cuts a paranoid arc through a superficially
mundane New York, it also hauls aboard, for one, Joseph Heller, in
Smith's hilarious but frightening encounter with a couple of
cops...who call to mindCatch 22....Not to mention Philip K.
Dick...and Jorge Luis Borges...Throughout, first-time novelist
Nelson speaks with his own assured and wonderfully askew voice in
what becomes a dizzying, disorienting and shockingly entertaining
meditation on the nature of reality and the concept of free will.
-- Arthur Salm * The San Diego Tribune(Also Printedthe Florida
Newsp *
A sort of AmericanCandide....Nelson does evoke the strangeness of
being alone in a new city. In the end he makes the reader realize
that the book is the box, and Smith is the boy in it-or maybe you
are. Recommended. * Library Journal *
The reader empathizes with Smith for the apparent heartlessness,
fear, and unfriendliness of New Yorkers....Nelson has created a
wonderfully realistic world....The allusion to Franz Kafka is
evident, but Mr. Nelson has a theme and style all his own as the
reader is drawn ever tighter into the concentric circles moving not
inward, but outward into the unknown. -- Corinna Lothar * The
Washington Times *
A Kafka-laced concoction full of jarring, calibrated effects, for
those who take their fiction dry and chilled. * Kirkus *
Kafkaesque...a shadowplay in a mirror, a metaphor. -- Whitney Scott
* Booklist, (American Library Association) *
[Nelson] plays a cagey, Kafkaesque cat-and-mouse game with reality
and illusion...[and] manages to make the book work on two levels,
sustaining his thin plot while developing enough mysterious
atmosphere to lend events a more surreal significance....Nelson
creates an edgy, compelling world that will remind readers of Paul
Auster and cartoonist Ben Katchor. * Publishers Weekly *
Nelson has constructed a strangely telescoped panorama of urban
life....[His] characters seem peculiar yet tangible...The Boy in
the Box is a smooth, if puzzling, read. Nelson's stripped-down
prose belies the complexity of his odd tale. -- Elisa Ludwig * The
Philadelphia Inquirer *
Like Kafka'sThe Trial or Beckett'sWaiting for Godot, this novel is
a deceptively straightforward puzzler that yields no certain
solution....As absorbing as the narrative itself are Smith's
ruminations as he emerges from each new encounter. -- Edward Morris
* Foreword Reviews *
A harrowing and deftly written mystery....A strongly recommended,
darkly suspenseful novel. -- James A. Cox * Midwest Book Review
*
The Boy in the Box is an intriguing, well-crafted novel which
reveals itself like a perfect box, within a box, within a box....I
read it as if unwrapping a series of puzzling gifts, and only at
the end, upon unwrapping the last one, did I fully understand what
I received-and realized that I got what I wanted. -- Jack Gantos,
1998 National Book Award nominee
Eerie, surreal, timely,The Boy in the Box will haunt you long after
you have closed its cover. Nelson has written a novel that echoes
Ionesco, Kafka, Camus, and Marx (as in Groucho, that is). It is as
strange and unsettling as our times. -- Robin Hathaway, author of
The Doctor
The Boy in the Box is deliciously disquieting and as
thought-provoking as a Zen riddle. With lean, vibrant prose, Lee J.
Nelson takes his protagonist and the reader on a search for elusive
answers that is both entertaining and insightful. The New York
backdrop is skillfully drawn. -- Michael Biehl, author of Doctored
Evidence
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