Robert Klose

Many books that purport to be political satires are often ham handed and poorly written. This book is a notable exception.

I loved the characters. Each of them is an archetype, but also fleshed out in a way that makes the reader care about them. My favorite character is Clara. She could have been like a female video game character: all sex and no nuance. But Klose is able to make her relatable and vulnerable as the book goes on. The humanity of the characters balances well with the broadness of the satire.

The other part of this book that I loved was the conceit that intelligent design is actually real. But, this idea is subverted. It's not god who created us; it's a race of aliens known as Spong. Each interaction with the Spong is hilarious. I especially loved Spong 4's burgeoning crush on Clara. Klose took the points creationists make and turned them around on them.

I recommend this book to everyone who's hated living in Trump's America for the past 4 years. Be happy that it's over.… (mehr)

[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program]
Well, the "life" of the book is not on Mars but in our old Earth, in a plausible future where the USA became a Christian country and evolution cannot be taught anymore: Intelligent Design is the official pount of view. But the main character, a young philosopher who is the best expert in Perspective, knows that indeed life was seeded... by an alien race who just wanted to build a beautiful garden but forgot to check what happened. Now they want to extirpate the infesting creatures and hired the philosopher to write a wrap-up of what happened. Klose writes for the Christian Science Monitor, so maybe he accepts Intelligent Design: if so, he undoubtedly have a good sense of humor. The book is heavily American in its descriptions: I sometimes had some problem in understanding the context. Moreover, some editing would have been useful. But in general I found it an amusing reading, and I recommend it.… (mehr)

It's been a while since I read a book that full of wit and wisdom. A clever satire, LLGC paints college life vividly and hilariously. The main character, of Marcus Cleveland, is being presented as a car salesman, a very successful one, who hasn't told a joke in his life. That kind of statement is enough to make the reader like him automatically, and he doesn't disappoint later. Marcus needs to deal with the college's internal politics, with sophisticated multi-disciplinary educated fellows, and he does so using only his intuition and a college management book he reads. Against all odds, he succeeds. The other characters are also fun, even when they are not much more than caricatures. The reader comes across many random stupidities which are so daily-like, and the book manages to explain their inner logic. That on top of brilliant insights and a fascinatingly rich language, make a very worthwhile read.… (mehr)