Paul West (4)
Autor von First Cause: A Novel About Human Possibility
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- New York, New York, USA
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- New York, New York, USA
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- New York University
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- Paul West was born and raised in New York City; he currently resides in Harlem, where he has lived for much of his life. After graduating from NYU with a B.A. in History, he worked in the education and nonprofit world for many years before switching lanes and working in advertising and then fashion.
First Cause was conceived as a screenplay idea in the early 1990s, when West was still an undergraduate; he shelved the project for nearly a decade, and began work again in 1999. Paul West is a sports enthusiast, a student of people, a lover of music, a voracious reader and a fervent believer in human possibility.
Paul is also a writer and analyst for Through The Fence Baseball, primarily covering the NL East and New York Mets, and is a recurring guest on Fox Sports Radio. To follow Paul’s Through The Fence articles, go to http://throughthefencebaseball.com/au... and for Paul’s other sports writing, visit PDub’s Sports Hub at http://pdubssportshub.wordpress.com/
To follow Paul on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/firstcausenyc
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(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
It's extremely rare that I will bump up the score of a book here at CCLaP merely for its earnestness, the proverbial "A for effort" that I usually feel is just not deserved; but today is one of the few cases where I'm going to do exactly that, in that I found myself with a lot of respect for what author Paul West is trying to accomplish here, even if he mostly fails in these goals. A sprawling sci-fi epic that has a great New Agey conceit at its core -- that throughout history, a growing proportion of humanity has quietly come to realize the secrets to the next step of evolution, and that this group actually managed to invent space travel in the early 1900s, quietly shuttling off millions of believers to a nearby moon during the World Wars when they wouldn't be missed -- our tale takes place roughly a hundred years later, when the advanced quasi-humans decide to touch base again with their Earth relatives, half of this group wanting to see if humans are enlightened enough yet to voluntarily join them, the other half simply wanting to take the Earth over by force for their own purposes, the resulting chaos being a way to examine the current state of human morality Terence-Malick-style.
But that unfortunately turns out to be the biggest problem with First Cause, that West is not prepared to make the kinds of grandly fascinating statements about humanity that makes a story like this work; his conclusions are instead simply a series of easy cliches, delivered by a collection of sometimes badly cartoonishly cardboard characters, the melodrama so high at points that I kept waiting for a man in a top hat and long mustache to tie a blonde to some railroad tracks and then start singing about how she must pay the rent. Now combine this with way too much of a reliance on expository writing, so that it's more like reading a Wikipedia entry about the events that took place instead of just reading about the events taking place, and you're left with a book that I would normally give a thumbs-down to; but like I said, today I'm adding a bit to the score for sheer earnestness, with West currently having an ambition that's bigger than his writing skills, but with that certainly being better than the opposite situation. It takes quite a bit of forgiveness, but perhaps you'll enjoy First Cause as well for what it's aiming to be, maybe a little more than for what it actually is, and will encourage West to keep at it and turn in the better future work I'm sure he has in him.
Out of 10: 7.0… (mehr)
It's extremely rare that I will bump up the score of a book here at CCLaP merely for its earnestness, the proverbial "A for effort" that I usually feel is just not deserved; but today is one of the few cases where I'm going to do exactly that, in that I found myself with a lot of respect for what author Paul West is trying to accomplish here, even if he mostly fails in these goals. A sprawling sci-fi epic that has a great New Agey conceit at its core -- that throughout history, a growing proportion of humanity has quietly come to realize the secrets to the next step of evolution, and that this group actually managed to invent space travel in the early 1900s, quietly shuttling off millions of believers to a nearby moon during the World Wars when they wouldn't be missed -- our tale takes place roughly a hundred years later, when the advanced quasi-humans decide to touch base again with their Earth relatives, half of this group wanting to see if humans are enlightened enough yet to voluntarily join them, the other half simply wanting to take the Earth over by force for their own purposes, the resulting chaos being a way to examine the current state of human morality Terence-Malick-style.
But that unfortunately turns out to be the biggest problem with First Cause, that West is not prepared to make the kinds of grandly fascinating statements about humanity that makes a story like this work; his conclusions are instead simply a series of easy cliches, delivered by a collection of sometimes badly cartoonishly cardboard characters, the melodrama so high at points that I kept waiting for a man in a top hat and long mustache to tie a blonde to some railroad tracks and then start singing about how she must pay the rent. Now combine this with way too much of a reliance on expository writing, so that it's more like reading a Wikipedia entry about the events that took place instead of just reading about the events taking place, and you're left with a book that I would normally give a thumbs-down to; but like I said, today I'm adding a bit to the score for sheer earnestness, with West currently having an ambition that's bigger than his writing skills, but with that certainly being better than the opposite situation. It takes quite a bit of forgiveness, but perhaps you'll enjoy First Cause as well for what it's aiming to be, maybe a little more than for what it actually is, and will encourage West to keep at it and turn in the better future work I'm sure he has in him.
Out of 10: 7.0… (mehr)
To begin with, I received this book as a contest prize from Goodreads First Reads. I had no idea what it was about, nor did I look it up anywhere. I didn’t even look for any reviews (which I normally do before I read a book).
With an explosive beginning, this book kept my attention to the end. At first, I thought it would be a book about the United States being attacked by Islamic terrorists (since that is what everyone has on their minds). However, my beliefs were dispelled a short time into the book when it was revealed that an offshoot of humanity was attempting to gain a foothold and return their populace to Earth.
As we discover from Angela, there is a colony of humans known as the Luceri on one of the moons of a neighboring planet they named Lucero. They left Earth in the 1930’s to escape the conditions at the time. She is a part of an advance “defense force” sent to Earth to begin the process of their return. The Luceri believe they can bring peace to the world and advance humankind.
The Luceri “terranauts” as the defense force is called, sets events into motion that test the morals and ethics of people around the world. Explosions that rocked every major city on the planet within a few days of each other had the peoples of the world blaming each other for attacking.
The United States government is decimated and run by a “cabinet” chosen to work with the provisional President. Martial law is declared to help calm everyone down. Unfortunately, there are those in the group who have their own agendas.
Angela decides to help against her own people and becomes prey for the other Luceri on Earth. She manages to stay hidden for a time with Adam (who helped her understand that there is more to humanity than she was taught). The two are captured by rogue members of the government who try to pump information out of them. Thankfully, Adam, through his contacts, had already been it contact with the President and informed him of what was going on. When the President discovered Adam and Angela were being held against their will, he ordered them released.
The book could be considered a corollary to life here in the real world. A nation is attacked on their own soil (think September 11). Members within the government attempt to curtail civil rights and gain power for themselves. The public is kept in the dark about what Is really happening. The Luceri could very well have been from the same terrorist organization that attacked the United States in 2001. It’s not as if they were truly aliens. They were human.
In all, First Cause is a well written, thought provoking book (although it did end with the fates of everyone up in the air). It’s an exciting read for anyone whether they enjoy science fiction or not. If not for the fact of the Luceri being an advanced offshoot of humanity who left the planet, this really would not read as a science fiction novel. It does not contain any far-fetched technology or a lot of technobabble. It’s a book anyone can read and enjoy.
I look forward to Mr. West’s next book.… (mehr)
With an explosive beginning, this book kept my attention to the end. At first, I thought it would be a book about the United States being attacked by Islamic terrorists (since that is what everyone has on their minds). However, my beliefs were dispelled a short time into the book when it was revealed that an offshoot of humanity was attempting to gain a foothold and return their populace to Earth.
As we discover from Angela, there is a colony of humans known as the Luceri on one of the moons of a neighboring planet they named Lucero. They left Earth in the 1930’s to escape the conditions at the time. She is a part of an advance “defense force” sent to Earth to begin the process of their return. The Luceri believe they can bring peace to the world and advance humankind.
The Luceri “terranauts” as the defense force is called, sets events into motion that test the morals and ethics of people around the world. Explosions that rocked every major city on the planet within a few days of each other had the peoples of the world blaming each other for attacking.
The United States government is decimated and run by a “cabinet” chosen to work with the provisional President. Martial law is declared to help calm everyone down. Unfortunately, there are those in the group who have their own agendas.
Angela decides to help against her own people and becomes prey for the other Luceri on Earth. She manages to stay hidden for a time with Adam (who helped her understand that there is more to humanity than she was taught). The two are captured by rogue members of the government who try to pump information out of them. Thankfully, Adam, through his contacts, had already been it contact with the President and informed him of what was going on. When the President discovered Adam and Angela were being held against their will, he ordered them released.
The book could be considered a corollary to life here in the real world. A nation is attacked on their own soil (think September 11). Members within the government attempt to curtail civil rights and gain power for themselves. The public is kept in the dark about what Is really happening. The Luceri could very well have been from the same terrorist organization that attacked the United States in 2001. It’s not as if they were truly aliens. They were human.
In all, First Cause is a well written, thought provoking book (although it did end with the fates of everyone up in the air). It’s an exciting read for anyone whether they enjoy science fiction or not. If not for the fact of the Luceri being an advanced offshoot of humanity who left the planet, this really would not read as a science fiction novel. It does not contain any far-fetched technology or a lot of technobabble. It’s a book anyone can read and enjoy.
I look forward to Mr. West’s next book.… (mehr)
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With his debut novel, Paul West has managed to find a way to subtly weave a tale about the human condition and human possibilities into a rich tapestry. As much a social commentary as it is a sucker punch to the gut, First Cause is the ideal gift for unsuspecting readers.
Let that not dissuade, however, for West has succeeded in his mission: entertain the reader first, then deliver with a left hook. Yes, it will undoubtedly hurt at first, but the pain will be a welcome relief to the numb, dumbed down zombie that sat reading the book before. Once that first blow has been delivered it then becomes much easier for the reader to look further into the woven web and deeper into the philosophy that West has presented. Upon first reading, the subtlety of it might pass the readers eyes, but on second look what is presented to the reader is something that should be ingrained into every fiber of the human being, encoded into DNA and allowed to find its way into the world, to multiply and come to fruition.
Although West has managed to do all of this and more, the vehicle with which he has decided to do it will, to some readers, come off a bit clunky in spots. First Cause begins with the reader thrust into the middle of the action, unsure and as confused as the characters in the first handful of pages. From there the story begins to build and unfold with the help of multiple flashbacks; fragments of memory that read as though they were pieced together hastily. Something that might make it hard to follow for most readers.
Overall, First Cause might not be every readers cup of tea. This is a thinking man's book, and something that should not be ignored. If readers enjoy intellegent writing that will make them think, then there should not be any hesitancy in acquiring a copy of Paul West's thought provoking debut. Any future titles by West should not be ignored; knowledge that readers who finish First Cause will be rewarded with.… (mehr)