Book Review: The Person on the Other Side of this Book by Samuel J. Tanner

 The Person on the Other Side of this Book by Samuel J. Tanner

 265 pages, Paperback

 May, 2023 Quoir

Each and every book we read and consume is a relationship between two people on each side of the book.  The time you really get a feeling for that is when you personally sell books at book signings and talk directly to that person. You can’t help but think about that when you are reading a book with a title like this one. Much like the absurdists of the 20th century Tanner constantly rips down the wall between author and reader.

There are hints throughout this book that Tanner is influenced by the early more science-fictional works of Vonnegut. There are spices of new wave sci-fi that intentionally or maybe unintentionally remind me of the more experimental new wavers most famous of which being your Ellison or Dick, but willingness to break the fourth reminded me of the more obscure works of Malzberg. You’ll laugh as much as Sheckley or Douglas Adams book, at least this person on the other side of the laughed that much.

 All of that may be an accident, I don’t know if Tanner has read Sheckley or Malzberg but that is my way of saying yes I like all this. If you are looking for a modern comparison Tanner is a good spiritual cousin to Dickheads co-host D.Harlan Wilson’s early novels, in fact, this Dr. Identity would fit nicely on the shelf together.

“This is only a moment,” I said. “A small dot on an infinite journey. Imagine a spiral.”
“I don’t want to an autobiography,” Talia said smiling eyes. “I want to write about these dying people.”
“It’s impossible not to write autobiographies. The stuff that comes out of us is the stuff inside of us. Around us.”

I have no idea if this book is actually autobiographical any more than any other book, as of course, it seems like that was the point Tanner was making right. Look this is a hilarious absurdist way to express that point with a whole bunch of funny and weird science fictional concepts.  The book’s narrator/her/point of view is a professor named Sam. Oh shit, The author of this book is a professor named Sam. I doubt the real professor named Sam is having a conversation with an intelligence deep under the ice of the Jovian moon Europa, but I am not here to judge his friendships. I am here to judge his book, so I suppose I might have to blur those lines eventually.  

Inside the book Sam is talking to this alien fish dude, he has a nemesis named Arvin Bingleking. Outside the book Sam couldn’t have known this but I know an Arvin. Weird accident but it made me trust inside the book Arvin more than maybe I should have. Maybe I should talk less about the plot.  It is fine, but I have plenty of reasons to tell you to read this book most have nothing to do with the plot.

By the way, I am way too lazy to retype it but pages 70-71 were a very funny conversation. It is one of the times this book takes the piss out of science fiction, with a little back and forth I really enjoyed. Since it is funny and it is.  You might think is all fun and games. Tanner is very good at doing that absurdist thing where the prose feels like clothes turned inside out but there are moments of straight prose that poke through and show his other strengths as a writer. Consider the opening of chapter 7.

“And so yes, I rested in my tiny apartment in a dying city on a dying planet.  But I also traveled. Things are multiple, stupid.
And there, I called you stupid one last time. And we’re only on chapter seven! I bet you thought I would wait till the epilogue. No, I wanted to get my stupid jokes about calling you stupid out of the way. And we’re about halfway through this thing. Whatever this thing is.”

Damn it. OK, he had me fooled with that first sentence. I feel like I deserved the rest of it.  I swear it gets Science fictional with spaceships, Jupiter, and alien stuff.

“And so the clumsy human spaceship finally entered Europa’s atmosphere.
Patel and Bingleking silently monitored their screens as the ship’s engines rumbled. Bingleking’s euphoria was tempered by Patel’s weariness, though neither of the scientists turn astronauts paid much attention to effect.
Cameras filmed the small craft’s descent. Filmed Patel and Bingleking’s anxious silence. Billions of people watched this voyage to Europa on tiny screens. This technological feat was made possible by the Bingleking Drive. By the NBA and by Starbucks and by the National Space Society and by this sponsor and by that donor and Whatever.
“Who knows what you’re capable of? The owner of the Los Angeles Lakers asked as his face gave way to an image of Europa which gave way to a Nike swoosh. Jupiter’s moon was a pleasant distraction from thickening smog and drier coughs.”

I have sold you this book now, right? This is a very fun book. It is long for an absurdist book. Sometimes with surreal books, I start to get over it. I never did, there are plenty of ideas and fun to be had here. I laughed all the way to the end. I thought a lot about what Tanner was doing and trying to say, so as a reader I enjoyed that. Top Notch stuff.