Tibor fischer is a young, dynamic, English novelist with a flair for the eccentric. His first book, Under The Frog, chronicled the sybaritic exploits of two basketball players traveling overseas. Critical acclaim poured in for this witty, well-written debut novel. The Thought Gang (The New Press, 1994, 310 pages) is Fischer's much-anticipated sophomore effort.
Fischer has an unusual and unique writing style that is well suited to the publishing aims of his printer, The New Press. In the publishing house's own words, The New Press is "a major alternative to the large commercial publishing houses É operated editorially in the public interest, rather than for private gain; it is committed to publishing in innovative ways works of educational, cultural, and community value that, despite their intellectual merits, might not be commercially viable."
To say the very least, Fischer's writing is innovative. Take, for instance, the very first paragraph of The Thought Gang. It begins: "The only advice I can offer, should you wake up vertiginously in a strange flat, with a thoroughly installed hangover, without any of your clothing, without any recollection of how you got there, with the police sledgehammering down the door to the accompaniment of excited dogs, while you are surrounded by bales of lavishly-produced magazines featuring children in adult acts, the only advice I can offer is to try be good-humoured and polite."
The novel takes off from there and never tapers or looks back. The "I" in the above passage is Eddie Coffin, a bald, middle-aged philosophy professor at Cambridge University. Coffin is an incorrigibly lazy, yet lovable, alcoholic/philosopher. At times it is difficult to decipher which is his occupation and which is his disease. He seems to be a 50 year old shaped in the mold of the much ballyhooed "Generation X slacker". Coffin has no ambitions and his only passions are the Greek language and fine wine.
To ensure that he will be able to purchase cases of Ch‰teau Latour well after the dawn of the next millennia, Coffin has set up a fraudulent research foundation whose funding goes directly into his pocket. Coffin, to the delight of the reader, uses his background in philosophy to help justify his hedonistic lifestyle, just as any college student tries to rationalize the procrastination of homework.
Wanted by the English authorities, Eddie flees to a land where even the fearless detectives of Scotland Yard dare not tread: France. There he meets up with a one-armed thief named Hubert. Together, they travel the French countryside robbing banks. Each robbery is carried out in a different philosophical school of thought. The duo dubs themselves the "Thought Gang" and elude the French police through mere coincidence, luck, and the stupidity of the police force.
The charm of the novel is that it exists on two different levels. Fischer employs much history and many tricky concepts of philosophical traditions in the book. For those enlightened readers who have knowledge of these philosophies the storyline is richly enhanced and the irony is much more defined. For those who do not have a philosophical background, however, the wit is not dulled and the motifs are still accessible.
Upon finishing the novel one reviewer claimed that he could not decide if The Thought Gang was a book of great philosophical truths or just a story about a philosopher. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive and the novel incorporates both, though sometimes so expertly that the book does appear to be too funny, too wacky, to have any serious overtones. But like other playful, absurd storytellers, the ironic tone is a clever vehicle for the themes of the book.
The Thought Gang is a pointedly intelligent work. Fischer channels the chaotically inane into hilarious, meaningful focus, much like Quentin Tarantino does on the screen and Edward Albi does on the stage. Fischer leaves both ends of the spectrum of life open. "If it's pointless, what's the point? If there's a point to it, what's the point?" I can't help you with that, the only advice I can offer you, should you read this review, is dash out, buy this book, devour it, and pass it on to a friend. You won't regret it.