Kings of Infinite Space

I'm a technical writer. Really- I have spent years sitting in gray cubes, imagining extremes of horrors/delights to overcome the ennui, experiencing symbolic cannibalism from all quarters: especially from direction of the ceiling tiles. I thought this book was so delightful that when I lost my first copy halfway through (long story involving a brake-happy New York cabbie), I had to buy a new one. I saw plenty of parallels to real life, my real life, and, I'd imagine- many people's real lives. It's not just creepy and scary and funny; it's sexy, too. The female protagonist reminded me of someone you'd find in an early Tom Robbins book. You'll take a few messages with you, including (but not limited to): Don't let work devour your soul, respect your security guard, and never, ever drown your ex-wife's cat.

James Hynes "Kings of Infinite Space" is one of the most creative and hilarious books I have read in a long time. Hynes captures exactly what it's like to wake up every morning and face the endless maze of cubicles,coffee cups and telephones. Only he makes it a horror story as well. There are moments in the book that will scare the bejesus out of you and two sentences later you're laughing. A genius novel that deserves to be read by many.

Paul Trilby has come a long way down, from a teaching position at a prestigious university to an office temp at the Texas Department of General Services. He has made every mistake in the book, and so he finds himself divorced, alone, barely making enough to live on, his life in shambles. Worse yet, he is haunted by Charlotte, the ghost of his ex-wife's cat, the cat he drowned because...well, it's complicated.Well, cubicle hell is bad enough, but then strange things start happening. Strange pale men appear and disappear mysteriously. Strange post-it notes appear on Paul's computer. People know things about him they couldn't possibly know. Tiles in the ceiling move strangely, suggesting someone--or something--is up there watching. Amusing as all this may be, it will soon get personal for Paul. He will be asked to make some terrible, serious decisions. Does he have what it takes? And is all this real? Or is Paul going psychotic? You will have to read the book to find out.Author James Hynes is absolutely brilliant. His writing reflects his vast erudition without being the slightest bit pretentious. It flows along easily, and you find yourself unable to put the book down. At first it is humorous, but then it becomes alarming, enthralling, unvelievably suspenseful, as you race through the last hundred pages. I recommend this book highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

I sort of doubt that all the reviewers that have commented on this book actually read the whole thing. I say that because there is no way one could finish it, (and review it) without noting the dramatic fashion in which the climatic scenes are written. I won't spoil it here, but just know the last 50 or so pages ARE NOTHING like the rest of the book.Yes, there are great points of recognition about cube office life. Yes, there is laugh out loud humor ( the text book lessons with vertically arranged double meanings are brilliant, as are the descriptions of various people at the library book sale -complete with a Strawbs reference- to name just two of many great and hilarious examples). But the tone changes so much at the end, that the light Kafkaesque look at office bureaucracy and the slices of Texas life so well depicted earlier are a distant memory.A lot of times you hear people say a particular book 'can't be fit into any one genre' but trust me, here is a book that combines several styles and combines them well. The result is one of my favorite reads of 2004. I really enjoyed it on many levels, so I show up here to highly recommend it.

I gulped down this book in a single afternoon, it's not just that good but that thigh-slapping funny. And, oddly or perhaps not, that useful in thinking about examined lives and such. Of course, Hynes, can write bloody well ... or bloody well write, whichever, but lordy knows he gives awfully good book and then some. This one, "Kings of Infinite Space," is finest kind and a worthy counterpart to his earlier "The Lecturer's Tale" which also made sore my laugh muscles.Folk who have read Hynes' earlier novela trilogy ("Publish or Perish") might recognize a character or two, not all entirely human. Hynes reprises these and gives them a fullness of life that anyone would envy.If this guy ever writes a sententiously serious novel, he'd be in great danger of earning one of those prestigious prizes -- you know, a Pulitzer or an NBCC or some such. Because everyone knows you can't write a marvelously FUNNY brilliant book and win squat. Or rather, squat is what such a brilliant book wins.