Title:
As She Climbed Across the Table
Author:
Jonathan Lethem
Publisher:
Doubleday, 1997
ISBN
0-385-48517-4

For years Philip Engstrom and Alice Coombs were an item on campus. But when a physics experiment has unexpected results, their relationship is torn apart.

I find the story hard to quantify. It is science fiction, I suppose, since the physics experiment is of such a far out nature, and since the story leads to an exploration of truly strange possibilities. But Lethem manages to keep the events strictly in the here and now. Engstrom, who in fact is telling the story, is the foil with which Lethem probes our notions of reality, and he manages to turn up some interesting bits in the process.

Lethem takes a look at a version of solipsism, using a subtle sense of humor - of irony, really - which allows the subject, which otherwise might seem pretentious, to be entertaining and thought provoking. At the same time, he intimates that there is more to the story than what would amount to a couple of hours of idle speculations of some drunken physics students. It is a look at relationships, at the sacrifices we are willing to make, and at the sacrifices that we make unknowingly.

I enjoyed the story, however librarians or book retailers decide to shelve it. Lethem sets an easy pace at the beginning, and maintains it comfortably throughout. Readers who are a little familiar with theories of knowledge might have a different appreciation of the story than those who are just getting their feet wet, but the story is readable by anyone who has a working sense of humor and some curiosity about how our world is put together.