Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Knopf (1985), Edition: 1st, 247 pages
Description
Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus - the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood.
Media reviews
It’s the perfect novel to explain QAnon, to explain Trump, to explain organized religion—hell, to explain America itself.
Though he intentionally avoids diving too deep into the minutiae of Gnomonism, Portis nails the reasons why cults, secret societies, and conspiracy theories grip certain
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members of society: namely, a desire for deeper truths and hidden meanings to explain a world that no longer makes sense. And, crucially, a dangerous abundance of free time. Show Less
From the outside looking in, America's personality dial is permanently set to 11 with citizens who are charming, maddening, innocent, foolish, xenophobic, gullible, optimistic, crafty, adventurous, bigoted, energetic, and ignorant, not forgetting all the go-getters, do-gooders and flim-flam men.
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This crazy quilt of emotions and characters is brilliantly portrayed in Masters, woven into a story that revolves around what might be the core of the American character: belief. Show Less
No matter how extravagant the horseplay, it is never performed simply to show off. A purpose infuses the craziness, a sense that the author is after something bigger than jokes. He is giving us a picture of Main Street made silly, of Babbittry gone goofy. Yet for all its ridiculousness, there is a
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sweet, dopey integrity to Lamar Jimmerson's innocence.
Austin Popper, on the other hand, is the mythic American hustler who tries everything from selling used cars to being ''a drunken bum.''
Together they form quite a team, Popper and Mr. Jimmerson. They're Laurel and Hardy, Mutt and Jeff, Abbott and Costello, the dummkopf and the wise guy, and, through an alchemical transmutation worthy of Gnomonism itself, they represent respectively the active and contemplative ways of life in 20th-century America. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
In his fourth novel, Charles Portis offers the compound biography of a fictional 20th-century initiatory order that arrived in the US following World War I and experienced ups and downs at the hands of its various aspirants and adepts. The author clearly intends the reader to be amused by the
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eccentric partisans of the Gnomon Society, yet his tone is largely sympathetic. I originally read this book at the recommendation of the head of one of the world's most venerable esoteric bodies, and Portis does indeed give a far more accurate picture of the ambitions and concerns of most of today's Rosicrucians and occult Freemasons than any wide-eyed Dan-Brownishness can provide. Shelve it between Foucault's Pendulum and the Stonecutters episode of The Simpsons. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dokfintong
I bought this book early this year based on a review that I can't find now. As I read I kept thinking "This book is old fashioned" and then I looked and I see that indeed it was written in 1985.
So what do I mean by "old fashioned?" Like so many books of the late 1970s and 1980s it is a kooky story
Here we have the tale of a dozen white WW2 veterans who are inducted into various levels of the Gnomon Society, a group who believes, sort of, that the world can be explained through geometry, secret handshakes and odd poses of the hands and feet. Women are completely excluded from Gnomic knowledge and there are no important females in the book. To me the book is not so much funny as silly, and not important to read.
So what do I mean by "old fashioned?" Like so many books of the late 1970s and 1980s it is a kooky story
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told in a series of declarative sentences one after the other like a train. I wasn't so fond of the style then and don't like it at all now. Take a look at the sample chapter and then consider how well you will like an additional 300 pages just alike.Here we have the tale of a dozen white WW2 veterans who are inducted into various levels of the Gnomon Society, a group who believes, sort of, that the world can be explained through geometry, secret handshakes and odd poses of the hands and feet. Women are completely excluded from Gnomic knowledge and there are no important females in the book. To me the book is not so much funny as silly, and not important to read.
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LibraryThing member ashleytylerjohn
Another very high 4 stars--it's hard for me to give 5s unless I have an emotional reaction, otherwise the book has to be absolutely perfect at what it sets out to do.
This is a Very Strange Book (which is a good thing--not remotely formulaic). It's the only Portis I've read, so not sure how it
I was also reminded a bit of The Hearing Trumpet or The Towers of Trebizond ... it's just a wonderfully off-kilter book, like its characters. Worth checking out--you'll know right away if you appreciate the style or if it will not be for you.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
This is a Very Strange Book (which is a good thing--not remotely formulaic). It's the only Portis I've read, so not sure how it
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relates to his oeuvre, or if this is his normal style or not. It reads, to a large extent, as if one were reading a religious or mythological book (e.g. the Simarillion, the Ramayana, the Bible, etc.), rather than a novel--the plot sweeps along, there's not a lot of psychological introspection, and every so often the plot halts for the sake of a list, or a scene becomes excruciatingly minutely rendered, in huge contrast to the normal goings-on. I thought it was nifty, and suited the subject matter (the history of a weird made-up (or is it?) religion/belief-system and the people who discovered/invented it). In that sense, it's barely a novel--it reads more like the romances (in the old sense of the word) which preceded the invention of the novel in the 18th century.I was also reminded a bit of The Hearing Trumpet or The Towers of Trebizond ... it's just a wonderfully off-kilter book, like its characters. Worth checking out--you'll know right away if you appreciate the style or if it will not be for you.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
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LibraryThing member kukulaj
This is light fare. I read it in two days but a person could read it in a single sitting. The core plot device is some kind of Hermetic mystery text, but there is no exploration of its contents. We do hear about Fludd the Rosicrucian and Churchward's continent of Mu, so the general context of
What really stands out here is the writing. There is a consistent pacing and tone that shows a master of narrative at work.
I've spent a bit of time circulating in non-elite esoteric realms... this book actually rings quite true. It's all absurdly comical here, but the basic flavor is very real.
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western esoteric lore is sketched out a bit. What really stands out here is the writing. There is a consistent pacing and tone that shows a master of narrative at work.
I've spent a bit of time circulating in non-elite esoteric realms... this book actually rings quite true. It's all absurdly comical here, but the basic flavor is very real.
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LibraryThing member gsmattingly
Hm, maybe 2.5 instead of 3 stars. I finished it but I had to push myself. A strange book which oddly enough reminds me of Lawsonomy and Alfred Lawson. Admittedly it is about a more occult religion but they both really started in the 1930's and then died out, for the most part. It was interesting in
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that sense, mapping the times of the fictional church and the head(s) of it. Interesting in an odd way, I suppose. Show Less
LibraryThing member yfngoh
Delusionary men with conspiratorial theories of Atlantis.
LibraryThing member mrgan
Gosh I wanted to love this, but it just didn't make me actually laugh or chuckle very much at all.
LibraryThing member 5hrdrive
Not at all what I was hoping for. I wanted a goofy cult/conspiracy theory send-up like The Illuminatus Trilogy, except maybe something a little less insane. This isn't that. It's not all that funny, there's no explanation of what these "Masters" actually believe, and it ends with a thud. The
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writing is decent and I can certainly handle a book with no plot, but this just didn't do it for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member grandpahobo
At the beginning, I found the story both humorous and fascinating. It moved along quickly and required that you keep up.
However, the second half of the story seemed to bog down, becoming repetitive and meandering. Frankly, at the end it just seemed to fizzle out.
However, the second half of the story seemed to bog down, becoming repetitive and meandering. Frankly, at the end it just seemed to fizzle out.
LibraryThing member sparemethecensor
I really wanted to like this. I love the idea: incidental discovery of an ancient rome of dubious authenticity, leading to an adventure among bumbling fools and a huckster or two.
Here's the problem: it isn't sardonic. It isn't insightful. It doesn't say anything new. There are funny parts (selling
Here's the problem: it isn't sardonic. It isn't insightful. It doesn't say anything new. There are funny parts (selling
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the federal government compressed air as a weapon) but there are also pathetic parts (women aren't people, in this book; they are window dressing at best, perhaps more like pretty servants as the natural order of things). It feels much more old fashioned than a novel written in the 80s. And it just isn't saying anything when it could! Perhaps that's the saddest part: it could have done it, and it just...didn't. Show Less
LibraryThing member joshnyoung
Dreadfully uninteresting, dull, and unremarkable. This was a labor to get through and left me wishing the author did anything interesting or amusing (other than the idiocy of the main characters) with the immense potential of the first few paragraphs.
LibraryThing member kslade
Quirky novel about believers in cult hidden knowledge coming from ancient Atlantis. Mostly seems like a long shaggy dog story. I am not sure what I expected but not this. My first novel by Portis. I need to read True Grit for sure.
LibraryThing member burritapal
After reading and enjoying "Dog of South," this was disappointing. I appreciate the effort to satirize those goofy men's societies like the Masons--good job on that--but it was just too pathetic a group of characters.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1985
Physical description
247 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0394546830 / 9780394546834