As Gwenda alluded to last week, Subterranean Press's PR letter for How We Got Insipid has to be one of the best I've ever read. An excerpt:

You're in luck. There are lots of people we can't send Jonathan Lethem's limited-edition (only 1500 copies) two-story collection How We Got Insipid to. You are not one of them. Call yourself off the map. Call youself under the radar. Call yourself the blind spot in the vision of corporate publishers, who, in this case, fear a small two-man operation will steal some of the promotional thunder. They suspect your opinion won't matter much. Naturally we disagree.

Okay, what reviewer could resist that? Apparently Lethem did not want ARCs sent out to "the trade journals, or to book reviewers for newspapers or magazines." He also said it couldn't be sold in stores or through normal book channels (must mean amazon).

So I got it, and I read it, and I loved it. But Sub Press is one of my favorites, so that is no surprise. I've never read Lethem though, so I was blind going in. The first story, "How We Got In Town and Out Again" was a little odd to me. I wasn't sure what the author was going for until I read in his afterword that he had read alot about the dance marathon crazes when he was writing it and then the whole thing clicked into place. It also kind of creeped me out a bit (but in a good way!). The story follows two friends in a somewhat dystopian future America who are trying to get past guards and into town. They wind up hooking up with a group that does a virtual reality traveling show that gets teens to participate and then charges tickets from adults to watch. The thing is the kids can't really sleep - they have regimented breaks for food and drink and all but they are purposely exhausted, just like those old dance marathons. And everyone wants to watch.

And then it gets a bit icky/nasty.

This is one of those future world stories that really makes you think about the world today - and in this case made me wonder just why everyone was doing those dance marathons anyway. What was the draw there? How was that possibly fun for anyone?

The second story, the title story, is a mind blower for fans of a certain YA classic. There is an artist (not a very good artist) who is suffering blackouts and waking up to find dramatic and creepy changes to his paintings. He goes to a private eye to have her watch him and figure out what he's doing while he's blacked out - and also to see who is doing what to his art. The chick he hires? None other than Harriet M. Welsch!!!!! Can you stand the coolness of that? The story takes some major turns and ends up involving the works of artist Max Ernst and all sorts of questions about art and reality and living forever and even love.

But mostly it's Harriet trying to figure out what the hell is going on and finding some scary surprises and getting accosted by museum security and spilling the beans to a guy she barely knows because quite frankly she thinks she is losing her mind. (And any sane person would.) In the end it is all very surreal and fantastic and most enjoyable. It's a great way to address Harriet's adult life and I loved it from start to finish.

Lethem loves Harriet - can you believe it?!

The book is the usual beautiful Sub Press product (with very cool illustrations from Lethem's brother) and yes, it is pricey but it's also a limited edition and everything I've bought from them has been well worth the money. Consider it a treat for yourself - and for Harriet fans everywhere!