Book Reviews - Revolutionary Rd, Iron House and Zero History

Revolutionary Rd

Revolutionary Road explores the emptiness, loneliness and hopelessness of working and suburban life.

The Wheelers have the makings of the middle class American dream: a steady job and a nice house in the suburbs. However they have a sense of unease at the situation in which they find themselves - they are trapped. They are aloof from their children, constantly grating against the social façade they present for their tedious workmates and acquaintances.

In order to escape they decide to move to Paris and their lives are renewed. Nothing can be that simple though and the move to Paris precipitates a series of events that lead to the Wheeler's total destruction.

Rating: 4/5
Yates, Richard. Revolutionary Road
ISBN 0-8371-6221-1

Iron House

Michael has a lot at stake. He is on the run from the mob, after he left for a woman. His mentor is dead and his brother is under the care of a senator's wife, who's motivations are unclear.

Iron House is an exciting ride confronting change, lies, death and childhood demons.

Rating: 4/5
Hart, John. Iron House
ISBN13 978-0312380342

Zero History

You would think a story that was about industrial espionage against an arms dealer would be anything but boring. Unfortunately Zero History manages it. Gibson spends a huge portion of the book "setting the scene" in the same way that the appalling Sleeping Beauty movie spends the entire movie setting the scene.

Add to this a healthy dose of techno babble and motivations that simply do not make any sense. This results in a tiresome book that I could barely manage to read to the end. I did not care about the characters, whatever happened to these characters took altogether too long to happen and I did not care about the stupid jeans they were trying to track down!

Rating: 2/5
Gibson, William. Zero History
0670919527