Name: Big Machine
Rating: 3.333333333333333 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9780385530415

Victor LaValle

Ricky Rice is a middling hustler with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee, and a haunted mind. A survivor of a suicide cult, he scrapes by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York, until one day a mysterious letter arrives, summoning him to enlist in a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard what may have been the voice of God. Infused with the wonder of a disquieting dream and laced with Victor LaValle’s fiendish comic sensibility, Big Machine is a mind-rattling mystery about doubt, faith, and the monsters we carry within us.

A Novel

Big Machine

Janice Hopper

I have to say I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as I have some of LaValle's other works. At the end, I just felt like I didn't quite see all of what was going on, or why.

There are different kinds of redemption stories going on, mixed with an uncanny element. There are lots of flashbacks. 

The writing is wonderful, but the story just didn't really work that well for me. It took me a long time to finish.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was fine. The story just didn't grip me.

Victor D. LaValle

Scraping out an existence as a New York bus porter, recovering addict and suicide cult survivor Ricky Rice is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators who share his experience of having heard voices that may have a divine source.

Gary Homewood

Drifter ex junky with a back story slowly revealed of having been brought up as a child in a religious cult, joins another cult-like group. Sometime chaotic mix of genre fiction (noir, conspiracy, horror, supernatural), idea driven, ambitious and entertaining, with a lot of plot lines, tackling organised religion and the nature of belief/doubt. Some memorable hard-boiled lines, overreaches a bit at the end, but well worth reading. I've seen other reviews that have lazily pigeon-holed this with Pynchon, Murakami, Poe and many others, but it stands alone as unique.

Scraping out an existence as a New York bus porter, recovering addict and suicide cult survivor Ricky Rice is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators who share his experience of having heard disembodied voices that may have a divine source.

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld

Jeff James

Ricky Rice is a middle-aged hustler with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee, and a haunted mind. The sole survivor of a suicide cult, he spends his days scraping by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York. Until one day a letter arrives, reminding him of a vow he once made and summoning him to Vermont's remote Northeast Kingdom to fulfill it. There, Ricky is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom have at some point in their wasted lives heard the Voice: a murmur on the wind, a disembodied shout, a whisper in an empty room. All these may or may not have been messages from God. Their mission is to find the Voice -- and figure out what it wants. Big Machine takes us from Ricky's childhood in a matrilineal cult housed in a New York City tenement to his near-death experience in the basement of an Iowa house owned by a man named Murder. And to his final confrontation with an army of true believers -- and with his own past. Infused with the wonder of a disquieting dream and laced with Victor LaValle's fiendish comic sensibility, Big Machine is a mind-rattling mystery about doubt, faith, and the monsters we carry within us. Big Machine named: •American Book Award 2010 •Shirley Jackson Award 2009 - Winner - Best Novel •10 Best Books of 2009 -- Publisher's Weekly •Favorite Fiction of 2009 -- Chicago Tribune •Best Science Fiction of 2009 -- Los Angeles Times •Best Science Fiction & Fantasy -- Washington Post •Most Valuable Fiction Book of 2009 -- The Nation •Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence 2010 Winner

Big Machine A Novel

Reviews

Highlights