The Visible Man

by Chuck Klosterman
Scribner, 240 pp., $25

With his second novel, cultural sponge Klosterman switches to sci-fi, that bold frontier everyone seems to be indulging now. The premise: Austin therapist Victoria Vick recounts the story of patient Y__, who discovered a cloaking suit that makes him invisible. In his pop culture and sportswriting, Klosterman’s rhetorical culs-de-sac make for dynamic reads, but here, references to The Wire and Duran Duran cause Y__’s monologues to lose emotional momentum. The most interesting scenes come when he’s silently observing someone, revealing some wisp of human nature, but they’re few and far between.

Lit Crawl: Saturday, Oct. 22, 8-8:45pm, Scoot Inn (1308 E. Fourth)

This article appears in October 21 • 2011.

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