Parasites Like Us

by Adam Johnson

Book Overview

The debut novel by the author of The Orphan Master's Son (winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize) and the story collection Fortune Smiles (winner of the 2015 National Book Award) Hailed as "remarkable" by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142004774
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.1" x 0.8" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

An interesting read

This book was in interesting take on the end of the world. There was some dark humor that I enjoyed. I really liked the characters. The quirks and oddities just made them more real. The ending however was a bit rushed for me. Overall I enjoyed it.

This is the way the world ends

Or at least civilization. Adam Johnson's wondrously funny novel reaches into the murky depths of academia, where the next publication is the most important one, where the next discovery can make or break your career, and drags to the surface the deep-seated politics and rivalries of the academic department. Anthropologist and Professor Hank Hannah believes that by studying the lost people of the planet, he can understand how he loses the people he loves, but his day-to-day life is far more prosaic as he grades undergrad papers and writes grant proposals than any Indiana Jones adventure. His graduate student, Eggers, goes native to better understand the ancient people he's studying and becomes a celebrity in academic journals. To do this, Eggers sets up camp in the university park, subsisting off roots, berries, grubs, and whatever he can catch in his snares, which includes squirrels and Pomeranians. He is, however, raiding vending machines on campus because no one can live like that. When Eggers finds a Clovis Point, a perfect spear tip, on grounds belonging to a Native American casino, they decide to dig in secret. What they find ends civilization. Johnson's book Parasites Like Us is a smart, funny inquiry into the nature of competition and depletion in our culture. If you liked Fluke by Christoper Moore, try this one. For the over-educated misanthrope, it's a must-must-must read. TK Kenyon Author of Rabid: A Novel and Callous: A Novel

Best. Book. Ever.

It was the playwright that got to me. I was already into this book. Digging it, if you will. On page 272, a playwright gets gunned down and, as he dies, he begs our hero to "Find my play." He even tells the hero where to find it and then asks him to make necessary changes. "In Act IV," he instructs, "erase the cruel words that Lonnie speaks. He doesn't mean it. I know that now." This got to me. Isn't this one of the reasons we choose to write? For immortality, for recognition even after we die? As I said, this got to me. I was already thinking that I haven't laughed out loud at a book this much since The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And amidst my laughter, I am moved. Almost to tears. Moved by a playwright who has suddenly realized that his own life eternal lies in an unproduced manuscript sitting quietly on a shelf beside his bed. Does telling you about the playwright ruin where Adam Johnson's awe-inspiring book might be heading? Taken out of context, this anecdote doesn't mean anything. You really do have to read this book to understand the gravity and power of the story Mr. Johnson weaves. So what if you know ahead of time that a playwright dies on page 272? Read it anyway because this book is brilliant, and I'm not so sure that "brilliant" is a big enough word to encompass the majesty of this prose. I almost didn't read it. A review I read turned me off. The review stated that this novel was "so steeped in anthropology that it becomes impossible to read without some prior knowledge of anthropological thought, rendering it, for the layman, impossible to finish." Bull, I say. Despite the anthropology, it's quite accessible. If anything, it's more about philosophy than anthropology, positing that all of us are doctoral candidates of anthropology. Wondering what happened to a friend you haven't seen in ten years, imagining their outcome, a scenario they might have found themselves in based on what you know of the person they were, is, in its own right, a form of anthropology. We use anthropology to revive the dead, see how they lived, learn how they fared. By definition, we are all armchair anthropologists. Okay, a brief plot recap (hopefully, without ruining anything -- this book is full of moments you don't see coming). Hank Hannah is a down-on-his-luck professor of anthropology at a small college in South Dakota. His focus is on the Clovis, the first known people to reside on North American land, having crossed the ice bridges from Asia during the last Ice Age. His theory is that the wildlife of The Pleistocene Era were not killed off by climactic change or malnutrition, but by the Clovis people, a band of fierce hunters. Hunters who continually hunted their prey until there was nothing left to hunt. One of his students (Brent Eggers, who just might be one of recent literature's greatest creations) is working on a dissertation that requires him to live, for one year, like The Clovis, limiting himself to only the tools and technology

Interesting and intelligently written

Johnson does an excellent job of capturing the essence of an eccentric college professor and his equally odd and interesting students, probably because he is a professor himself. Each character is beautifully portrayed, shortcomings included. To me, the best part of this novel occurs just when you think it's slowly winding down, just when you begin to loose interest: it hits you! Perhaps even better is HOW it hits you, it doesn't simply get laid out for you; you're left with more questions than answers, and feelings of helplessness and isolation--similar to real life. Another reason this book gets five stars is how intelligently it is written. Johnson masters the English language in every sentence, selecting the most precise word to convey his story. No cliché, overused, mundane phrases here. Overall a great book that proffers an interesting theory about the "depletionist" nature of humankind, through an incredible and unique novel.

Johnson Delivers

Johnson solidifies his reputation as one of America's hot young writers with this powerful follow up to last year's short story collection. This is a book that's got it all--surreal characters and situations, dark humor, social commentary, stunning poetic language, and profound wisdom about what it means to be human at the end of the 20th century.

Powerful, Funny, Moving!

Wow, this book really blew me away. I thought it was just a silly farce at first -- lighthearted fun. But the ending is phenomenal and so real! I am recommending it to all my friends and I can't wait to ready anything else Johnson writes.