Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Flamingo (1998), Paperback, 256 pages
Description
A cult classic in the making. 253 is the novel about everyone you've ever met and wished you hadn't or wished you could again. 252 passengers and one driver on the London Underground. They all have their own personal histories, their own thoughts about themselves and their travelling neighbours. And they all have one page devoted to them. Some characters are tragic, some are inspiring, some are mad/proud/foolish/infuriating (delete where appropriate) and some are just like the person near you right now. You'll meet Estelle who's fallen madly in love with Saddam Hussein; James, who anaesthetises sick gorillas for a living; and Who?, a character that doesn't know where, or what, on earth he is. It's a seven-and-a-half minute journey between Embankment and the Elephant & Castle. It's the journey of 253 lifetimes... This is the full text of the celebrated interactive novel that startled the Web when it first went on line. Only it can't crash, the downloading time is quicker and you can read it on the Tube, the train, the bus,, the plane, by foot - even by car, so long as you're not driving.… (more)
Media reviews
Is it a novel? Doubtful. Certainly not in the traditional sense. Is it worth reading? Definitely. Is it the fiction of the future? I hope not. As a one-off, it's entertaining, and even thought-provoking, but it took me a long time to read, simply because I kept setting it aside after every
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half-dozen or so entries to read something with a more coherent narrative. Call me old-fashioned, but I doubt I'd try another. Show Less
Two hundred and fifty-three people (including one befuddled pigeon) ride a London tube train heading for a crash. In 253 sketches consisting of 253 words each, Geoff Ryman provides these unwittingly doomed riders with vivid individuality, getting inside the heads of everyone from a disillusioned
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Punjabi dry cleaner to that pigeon with a gleeful omniscience. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member reverends
There are 253 passengers on a seven car Tube train that is about to crash. Every person, along with their thoughts and actions on their brief train ride (and including footnotes explaining their direct and/or indirect relationships with other people on the train), is described in exactly 253 words
While on the surface this may sound like nothing more than a mildly interesting experiment in constrained writing, the book manages to reach a deeper meaning than you would expect. Whether you read the book from beginning to or flip around to random parts at your leisure, the overall effect is the same; allowing you to freeze a moment in time and examine the lives and deaths of 253 people with more in common than they will ever truly realize. Contrasting and comparing their personalities and motivations affords the reader an almost God-like chance to examine the fantastic and mundane worlds of a train full of strangers as an intrinsic whole.
But don't let that scare you away. If you rather enjoy as a distraction rather than a perceptions-enhancing experience, it easily works on that level as well. No matter how you attack 253, it remains a truly unique book in both structure and subject matter, and equally enjoyable whether read in short bursts or cover to cover.
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each.While on the surface this may sound like nothing more than a mildly interesting experiment in constrained writing, the book manages to reach a deeper meaning than you would expect. Whether you read the book from beginning to or flip around to random parts at your leisure, the overall effect is the same; allowing you to freeze a moment in time and examine the lives and deaths of 253 people with more in common than they will ever truly realize. Contrasting and comparing their personalities and motivations affords the reader an almost God-like chance to examine the fantastic and mundane worlds of a train full of strangers as an intrinsic whole.
But don't let that scare you away. If you rather enjoy as a distraction rather than a perceptions-enhancing experience, it easily works on that level as well. No matter how you attack 253, it remains a truly unique book in both structure and subject matter, and equally enjoyable whether read in short bursts or cover to cover.
Show Less
LibraryThing member aulsmith
This is a hard book to rate. I tried to read it as a novel and found it tedious. But the interconnected pieces are interesting and engaging, the way a poetry collection is engaging. So I'll leave it unrated. If you're picking this book up because you liked Ryman's Air, you're going to have to keep
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an open mind and not expect it to satisfy all your novel cravings. If you liked Was, this takes the non-linear, interrelated narrative style a step further. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mockers
Said to be the first internet publishing success. Interesting concept and a fun read.
LibraryThing member seawolfsanctuary
Fantastic idea, Great read if you can't stand long stoies. Broken up well but may need to flip back and forth to check things; because of it's segmentation, by the time you've read it through you've probably forgotten half of it ! Can kinda deciede for yourself the stoyline/conclusion.
LibraryThing member eairo
253 characters, 253 words for each of them (+the titles, ads and footnotes (misleading and untrue)), set in a London Underground train on the 11th January 1995 coming to the end of the line.
Interesting to say the least. And it works. (As a book.)
It is morning. Most of the people are going to work,
I am a curious person. I look at other people on the underground (even though the one in my home town is quite pathetic one-liner) or bus, wondering and pondering what is going on in their minds and in their lives. I talk with them if they do. And once in a while even if they don't. So, I guess one could say I belong to the target population for this book.
This is a book of many ways. The stories in the book are ordered according to the sitting order, which is not, however, the optimal reading order. Following the links (the internet version helps here--I found it easier and more convenient to read near a computer and check the links with it, even though I was reading the printed edition) and going back and forth in the book makes it even more interesting, and there is not only one right order: skip one link or choose one before the other and you've got a different book.
Actually I am not even sure I read all of the 253 "stories"--but I did read quite a few of them more than once, so I think that makes it even and I can say I've read the book--so unordered was my reading. Once or twice I followed a link to a section of the book I thought I had read to find out I had not.
Interesting to say the least. And it works. (As a book.)
It is morning. Most of the people are going to work,
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some of the are going nowhere special. Some of the stories, or characters, are linked into beautiful (or not so) chains by acquaintance/geography/random occurrences/most anything, some of them are "loners". Like in life. Some of them are quite uninteresting, some of them are unbelievably interesting. Or just unbelievable. Like in life. Some of them are just jokes, good or bad, some are heart breakers. Variety, variation,I am a curious person. I look at other people on the underground (even though the one in my home town is quite pathetic one-liner) or bus, wondering and pondering what is going on in their minds and in their lives. I talk with them if they do. And once in a while even if they don't. So, I guess one could say I belong to the target population for this book.
This is a book of many ways. The stories in the book are ordered according to the sitting order, which is not, however, the optimal reading order. Following the links (the internet version helps here--I found it easier and more convenient to read near a computer and check the links with it, even though I was reading the printed edition) and going back and forth in the book makes it even more interesting, and there is not only one right order: skip one link or choose one before the other and you've got a different book.
Actually I am not even sure I read all of the 253 "stories"--but I did read quite a few of them more than once, so I think that makes it even and I can say I've read the book--so unordered was my reading. Once or twice I followed a link to a section of the book I thought I had read to find out I had not.
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LibraryThing member debnance
This is a book based on an intriguingscheme: each page describes the outward appearance of, some insideinformation about, and the thinking of one of the 253 people who areriding inside a London tube train, using exactly 253 words. Eachperson's page reminded me of a short short story and many had
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O.Henry type endings.I like the idea behind the book, but it grew a little tedious, almostlike reading from a phone book. Too many characters to keep everyonestraight and most of the little plot there was focused on the littlesoap opera tragedies of every day life. Show Less
LibraryThing member wrichard
First released on the internet I read this book there. Quite a good charachter study of all the passengers on an underground train.
LibraryThing member texascheeseman
Too experimental for me. Would recommend to the voyeuristic who are in for a short, extremely short story collection, probably would appeal to them. 253 human stories taking place in 253 words on the 7 minute-ish ride on a tube train across/beneath the Thames.
I wanted to like it and enjoy it, but
I wanted to like it and enjoy it, but
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it just doesn't click for me. Maybe it will for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member Daftboy1
This is a totally different book than I would normally read.
Its about all the people on a Bakerloo line tube train one January morning in 1995.
Some of the people are interlinked all have a story. Some of the people are believable some arent. Very orginal book just not my cup of tea.
Its about all the people on a Bakerloo line tube train one January morning in 1995.
Some of the people are interlinked all have a story. Some of the people are believable some arent. Very orginal book just not my cup of tea.
LibraryThing member smichaelwilson
There are 253 passengers on a seven car Tube train that is about to crash. Every person, along with their thoughts and actions on their brief train ride (and including footnotes explaining their direct and/or indirect relationships with other people on the train), is described in exactly 253 words
While on the surface this may sound like nothing more than a mildly interesting experiment in constrained writing, the book manages to reach a deeper meaning than you would expect. Whether you read the book from beginning to or flip around to random parts at your leisure, the overall effect is the same; allowing you to freeze a moment in time and examine the lives and deaths of 253 people with more in common than they will ever truly realize. Contrasting and comparing their personalities and motivations affords the reader an almost God-like chance to examine the fantastic and mundane worlds of a train full of strangers as an intrinsic whole.
But don't let that scare you away. If you rather enjoy as a distraction rather than a perceptions-enhancing experience, it easily works on that level as well. No matter how you attack 253, it remains a truly unique book in both structure and subject matter, and equally enjoyable whether read in short bursts or cover to cover.
Show More
each.While on the surface this may sound like nothing more than a mildly interesting experiment in constrained writing, the book manages to reach a deeper meaning than you would expect. Whether you read the book from beginning to or flip around to random parts at your leisure, the overall effect is the same; allowing you to freeze a moment in time and examine the lives and deaths of 253 people with more in common than they will ever truly realize. Contrasting and comparing their personalities and motivations affords the reader an almost God-like chance to examine the fantastic and mundane worlds of a train full of strangers as an intrinsic whole.
But don't let that scare you away. If you rather enjoy as a distraction rather than a perceptions-enhancing experience, it easily works on that level as well. No matter how you attack 253, it remains a truly unique book in both structure and subject matter, and equally enjoyable whether read in short bursts or cover to cover.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TomMcGreevy
A gimmick novel consisting of 253 short profiles of people on a tube train in London. Enough said.
Awards
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Nominee — Novel — 1999)
Philip K. Dick Award (Winner — 1998)
Language
Original publication date
1998 (print)
1996 (website)
Physical description
376 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
0006550789 / 9780006550785