lucky wander boy
d.b. weiss
review by Zube (zube@stat.colostate.edu)
Created:  Sep 26, 2003
Updated:  Sep 27, 2003
http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~zube/luckywanderboy.txt

What can one say about this novel, this novel about ... what?

Is it a video game novel?  Video games are certainly mentioned in it and
curiously, Mr. Weiss gets more of his facts right than many video game 
history books do.  It's also clear that video games are used over and
over as metaphors for many facets of life. 

Is it a novel about one particular video game, Lucky Wander Boy?  Only
in spots and again, as a metaphor.

So what is it, really?  Good question.  I honestly have no idea.
In the end, I guess you'll have to read it yourself to decide.  However, 
one can make a few generalizations about parts of it.  BTW, I'm intentially 
skipping most of the plot, as I don't want to bias anyone one way or another.

Mr. Weiss is both widely-read and familiar with video games in their
many forms.  Some of his descriptions are terrific and some of his
insights are interesting.  I do have a problem with him "borrowing" one
of his early plot points from _Score One Bonus Life_ by J. Ray
Dettling in the May 1983 Video Games and changing it from a story of
great triumph to one of grand sadness.  But he's the author, so it's
his world.

[For the record: I don't know if Mr. Weiss got the idea from that 
particular story, but it was familiar enough for me to dig up the
reference.]

Also, the author often breaks up the narrative with entries from our
hero's self-written, _The Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments_, wherein
we discover every random connection between video games and anything
else in Mr. Weiss' brain.  Easier than writing plot, I suppose.

In the end, though, so bloody what?  We're talking about a novel here;
what I like may not be what you like.  Unlike a non-fiction book, we
are knee-deep in subjectivity, so anything further on this topic is
pointless.

However, there is one discussable problem.  Novels, unlike histories,
are almost exclusively about people and the events that happen to
them.  More importantly, one has to care about the characters, whether
to root for them, to hope for their demise, to empathize or to cry for
their losses.  

I tried to care about our "hero," Adam Pennyman,  really I did.  But our
hero is not only superficial, capricious, deceitful, unfeeling, lazy,
pretentious, unwashed and destructive, but (I love this) he is so loved by 
Life that he gets one woman to leave Poland to live with him in Los Angeles;
later, when she walks out of his life, he has another just waiting for him
(actually, he had the second woman before the first one left, but that's
just our lovable rascal, Adam).  

Frankly, I can't think of a character I cared less about than Adam Pennyman
in any novel I've read in a very long time.  For many parts of the book,
I wished he would go away; he was like the person in the movie theater who
talks incessantly and obscenely, ruining even the good bits.

I present three examples of such evidence:

"The reason I enjoyed myself more with Clio, aside from the fact that she was
actually having sex with me, was the same reason I could feel no guilt about
Anya:  whatever guilt I felt back when I first met Clio and fantasized about 
her, by the time we came around to the deed itself, I saw her as part of
a completely different config than Anya, the bouncing bonus treasure
in a quest game far more exciting and worthwhile than the dull, poorly
programmed obstacle course I got whenever I plugged in the Home Life
cartridge.  I was not lying to Anya or cheating on her, because she was
in a whole different universe, as different as Stage I of Lucky Wander Boy
is from Stage II."

"... and taped the color photo of Araki Itachi ... to the entertainment
center so it hung directly above the TV.  Removing my pants and underwear,
but not my shirt and socks, I sat before the joystick in lotus position and 
plugged in the [Atari 2600] Adventure cartridge.  .... I shuttled my gaze
between Itachi and the game in smooth and steady one-second intervals ...
and played the game with my right hand while masturbating with my left.
....as it stood, I climaxed in perfect synchrony with the acquisition of the
magic chalice and successful completion of the game, after which I anointed
Itachi's picture with a ritual dab of her forehead.  Semen is often used
in true magickal ceremonies, or so I have read."

"... I might just stick each of his pencils up my ass, one by one; or I might
do nothing at all.  It was thrilling, not knowing."

Perhaps someone out there can relate in some way with Adam Pennyman.  
If so, rush right out and buy this book.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it as
much as Adam enjoyed Adventure.  The rest of you, however, may wish to
think twice before investing any time in it.