Rodes Fishburne

Funny, sweat, a love letter to San Francisco. The best thing written about this city since "Tales of the City."

1.5 *shrug* A low quality coming-of-age first novel about a youngish man wanting to write. Too many premises to make this a single world and too many characters without interiors. I enjoyed the idea of miniature weather but not much else. My beloved San Francisco is here as told by a name-dropping 2nd year transplant. The writing is passable and the imagination is almost there, it's really a shame that this was published and not just unknown student work.

An interesting location. A compelling supporting cast. Classic themes of self-discovery and maturation. A good-sized dose of absurdist humor. Rodes Fishburne's debut novel, Going to See the Elephant, has a lot going for it, but an interesting protagonist and tangible sense of atmosphere aren't among them.

The full review is published here:

http://tinyurl.com/mafyah

Good descriptions of San Fransisco, but at time it didn't really come together.