Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Cory Doctorow2006
Having recently moved to a bohemian Toronto neighborhood, middle-aged entrepreneur Alan learns his next-door neighbor's struggle to conceal her wings and hides his own secrets about his unusual family, which includes Russian nesting doll brothers, one of whom is bent on revenge. By the author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.
Sign up to use

Reviews

Photo of Michael Springer
Michael Springer@djinn-n-juice
2 stars
May 1, 2023

Aldus's dad is a mountain and his mom is a washing-machine. He has six brothers. One can see into the future. One is an island. Another was evil, and is dead now. The final three can fit inside of each other like Russian nesting dolls. As the story begins, he's moving into a new place where he plans on writing a story, although he has no idea what the story will be. He meets his neighbors, a bunch of punks who think he's extremely strange. Because he is. He's very interested in one of the girls that lives there, and one night when he's out with her, he finds out she has wings which her boyfriend saws off for her so she can seem normal. All of this is well and good, and interesting. As you can probably tell from this overview, this is a story about not fitting in, but trying very hard to do so. As a metaphor, the whole thing is very interesting. This is magical realism, and I like it. What this book lacks is a compelling plot. There IS a plot, it's just not compelling. The dead brother has apparently come back, and is lurking around being creepy. And Alfie (the main character's name is different every time, but always begins with an A) meets an anarchist sort of dude who wants to create a wireless network that gives all of Toronto free wireless internet. This also functions as part of the metaphor. . . Abraham wants to be connected with all the "normal" people out there. . .but it just ain't interesting. Here we have an unusual, if not especially likeable, character, and he has a fascinating family, and struggles with issues that we all struggle with. But, every time he starts talking about the fucking internet, I get REALLY bored. And, every time Davie (the evil brother) does something creepy, I just wonder why ol' Dallas (his name also changes) is even in the book. At the end, I still don't know. Nor do I understand why I was supposed to give a fuck about wireless internet. Or the girl with the wings. Or Doyle. I might have harsher feelings about this book because it took months to finish; Joy and I read it out loud before bed whenever the mood struck us. So, this 300-pager seemed to drag on forever. But, it might be a sign about the compellingness of the plot that we weren't tempted to read it frequently at all. After finishing it, Joy shrugged, and I said, "Well, that's that." We're very ready to move on to something else. I'm still undecided about Cory Doctorow: I really liked Little Brother, and I still want to read some more of his stuff. But this book, which I was really excited about beforehand, really seemed to fall on its ass.

Photo of Cindy Lieberman
Cindy Lieberman@chicindy
4 stars
Mar 26, 2022

Gritty magical realism; part horror, part sideshow. A haunting book that had me thinking about the odd characters for days. Interesting themes of family and belonging, fitting in, and access to resources of different types.

Photo of Nat Welch
Nat Welch@icco
2 stars
Dec 29, 2021

I'm disappointed in this book. It was way too scatterbrained, and lacked any sort of conclusion to any of the threads.

Photo of Jack Baty
Jack Baty@jackbaty
4 stars
Jul 16, 2021

Very fun read. Imaginative and delightful overall. I only wish I understood the purpose of changing everyone's name every third sentance.

Photo of John Manoogian III
John Manoogian III@jm3
3 stars
Apr 4, 2024
Photo of Aubrey Hicks
Aubrey Hicks@aubreyhi
4 stars
Jul 27, 2023
Photo of Dean Sas
Dean Sas@dsas
2 stars
Dec 18, 2022
Photo of Magnus Dahl
Magnus Dahl@gorillotaur
5 stars
Sep 23, 2022
Photo of Katie Day
Katie Day@librarianedge
4 stars
Feb 17, 2022
Photo of Chad Henderson
Chad Henderson@elmofromok
5 stars
Feb 8, 2022
Photo of Lance Willett
Lance Willett@lancewillett
3 stars
Oct 11, 2021
Photo of Arthur
Arthur@arthur
4 stars
Sep 27, 2021
Photo of Joseph Aleo
Joseph Aleo@josephaleo
2 stars
Sep 23, 2021
Photo of Edyta
Edyta@edyta
4 stars
Sep 16, 2021
Photo of Lloyd Dalton
Lloyd Dalton@daltonlp
4 stars
Sep 16, 2021
Photo of Roberto Mateu
Roberto Mateu@rmateu
3 stars
Aug 12, 2021