Gilligan's Wake

Carson provides a genuine tour de force that does not impinge upon Fitzgerald's quest for the great American novel, while displaying tremendous grasp of popular culture, major social themes and Carson's unfailing sense of whimsy and humor. Well worth both the money and the time spent to read.

This book sorta reminds me of PALE FIRE by Nabokov. Or maybe INFINITE JEST. Or, I don't know, maybe just growing up in the 60s. If you liked those, you'll probably love this one. I only hope that Tom Carson keeps it up and writes more novels.This book could never be made into a movie, but if it could, I'd be first in line to see it.

I loved this book. Tom Carson doesn't merely joke about pop culture, he creates one of the most dazzling examples of it. This book is both high literature and low culture, ambitious and funny (if a little over the top), and his command of the stuff of The American Century (trash TV, cultish European movies, literary figures, Hollywood and Washington, DC) is so masterful that he often makes you look at the objects that comprise it in a whole new way. this is the book every American studies student wishes he in his or her head. It's a whirlwind of brilliantly evoked voices (Lovey Howell's chapter in particular) and references, but they all come together in a way that is resonant, powerful and, in the end, very moving.

Well, maybe not everyone. This amazing, roller-coaster ride of a read will not appeal to the conventional. The plot turns on a coming to grips with American culture by an outsider who longs to fit in. Carson's story is accessed through the characters of Gilligan's Island, providing a romp through the 20th century that is both touching and hilarious. Written with delicious Joycean wordplay the book takes us into the future lives of those on deck of The Minnow. The harrowing, raunchy, obscure and plain glass clear portrayals take the reader to the warp and woof of perhaps his/her own unexamined life.