Herovit's world,

by Barry N. Malzberg

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394481410
• ISBN13: 9780394481418
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A brutal satire of the science fiction establishment

"Herovit's World," by Barry N. Malzberg, is the story of Jonathan Herovit, a science fiction writer in a deep state of personal and professional crisis. The novel follows his efforts to get his life back under control. In Herovit's struggle Malzberg has crafted a savage, unrelenting satire of the science fiction genre, and of its writers, fans, professional organizations, and publication process. Malzberg's comprehensive satiric vision also takes in academia, marriage, sex, parenthood, urban life, and the writing process--and he consistently goes for the jugular. This book is full of great writing. Malzberg is funny and outrageous. He crafts some truly stunning descriptive passages as he takes us through Herovit's seedy, booze-soaked world. Two key figures in the book are the following: Kirk Poland, Herovit's pseudonym and alter-ego; and Mack Miller, the hero of the series of science fiction adventure novels that Herovit has written. Together Herovit, Poland and Miller form a sort of absurdist metafictional trinity. Interspersed throughout the text, in a different typeface, are excerpts from Herovit's latest Mack Miller novel-in-progress; it's a device used very effectively by Malzberg. In this comic, tragic gem of a novel, Malzberg has done for disgruntled science fiction writers what Charles Bukowski does for disgruntled postal workers in "Post Office." The novel features intense interpersonal and internal conflict, as well as laceratingly cruel dialogue. Malzberg looks at the ugliest and most painful aspects of the human condition without flinching, and he deconstructs the science fiction world with both the precision of a forensic pathologist and the gusto of a serial killer. Nightmarish and bracing, "Herovit's World" is a stunning achievement by a truly remarkable writer.

Scathing look at SF writers

This sure as heck isn't for the faint of heart, that's for certain. Malzberg hasn't written too many novels lately that I know of, but back in the seventies he contributed a number of incisively and witty novels that both dissected and satirized SF. Malzberg's hits the target with a frightening accuracy more often than not and at his best he's a cousin to Kurt Vonnegut, brutal and hilarious at the same time. This novel tends to be more depressing than funny, but has its own rewards. It tells the tale of Jonathan Herovit, a almost forty SF writer trying to finish his fifty-something novel about Surveyman Mack Miller, a career that has hijacked basically his entire life and doesn't pay all that well. His marriage is a wreck, and the only pleasure he really seems to get are the one night stands with various gullible college co-eds he meets at the small conventions he attends. From there, it goes downhill, until eventually his pseudonym Kirk Polland, shows up and says, why not give me a shot. And there you go. For the most part the novel isn't so much a SF book as much as a book about a failing SF writer and Malzberg uses the space to make several pointed comments about the field, the writers' lack of respect, the nearly inbred fan community, the all too easy settlement for crappy hackwork merely to pay the bills, all of it absolutely unrelenting. This is not a novel for those that require even a little bit of cheer in their lives, because there are hardly any redeeming characters here, everyone is pathetic or malicious or just plain in their own fashion and watching Herovit's life crumble bit by bit somehow remains fascinating, even as you're wondering how much farther he can sink. Even when the book starts to get trippy, as Herovit turns into his Pollald alter ego (or does he?), Malzberg keeps you reading, even as the twist changes nothing and it all heads right for the seemingly inevitable end. This a bleak book full of black humor that probably isn't for everything and its view of the writing craft, especially when it comes to SF, is surprisingly brutal even for a field not exactly know for a great amount of self-respect. But Malzberg pulls no punches and shatters all the illusions he can reach. The novel is just long enough, any shorter and it might fail to make its point, any longer and the darkness might turn into tedium. As extreme a criticism of SF as you'll find in fictional form, no wonder it's currently out of print. Used copies are fairly easy to come by for cheap and if you want SF that's a little more challenging than rayguns and spaceships, it's a worthwhile investment of time and money. If you're lucky you'll get the neat jacket cover that has a typewriter typing out an image of a man's face. It's not the version I have, but it does look really neat. I just wanted to point that out. Recommended.