However, Valentine narrates his own flashbacks for the reader, and as much as states that he may be an unreliable narrator. Though the reader gradually comes to believe Elwood is a figment of Valentine's imagination, the climactic confrontation between Valentine and his father blurs this distinction considerably. Dowd and said to look very much like actor James Stewart, who played a character of the same name in Harvey. It is ambiguous in the narrative exactly what type of being Elwood is however, as the novel progresses, both in the present and in flashback, the character is more fully identified as Elwood P. is apparently aware of but unable to control his nearly homicidal rage.Īt times, both in the main story and in flashback, Valentine meets with a mysterious character named Elwood. This is framed quite realistically, and Valentine, Sr. subjects his son to monstrous and potentially fatal child abuse. We learn in these flashback segments that Valentine, Sr. interferes more and more, and becomes more difficult for his son and the producers of the show to deal with. As the show becomes increasingly popular, Valentine, Sr. While his father is auditioning for a role and has left young Kenneth sitting in a waiting room, Valentine wanders a little and gets swept up to audition for a part in a new children's adventure show called Sparky and His Gang and is cast in the lead role. It is Valentine, Sr.'s egotism and obsession with the stage that sets the tone for much of the flashback material. The story is punctuated by several extended flashback sequences in which we learn that Valentine's father, a supremely egotistical and domineering stage actor, has groomed his son almost from birth to follow in his footsteps. It is by exercising the latter skill that he runs afoul of the Charonese Mafia, personified by the cold-blooded and unkillable assassin Isambard Comfort. Valentine is a consummate actor and a skilled con man. The novel begins as a first person account of Valentine's adventures in the outer worlds of the Solar System as he attempts to make his way to Luna to play King Lear in an upcoming production. The Golden Globe in question is Luna, Earth's Moon and the most heavily inhabited world in the Solar System since the Invaders obliterated human civilization on Earth. The Golden Globe story is told initially from a first person perspective, but a substantial portion of the book comes in the form of extended flashbacks. There are also minor colonies set in the Oort cloud beyond the Solar System. Earth and Jupiter are off-limits to humanity, but Earth's Moon and the other planets and moons of the Solar System have all become populated. The Solar System has been colonized by human refugees fleeing aliens (known as "the Invaders"). The Golden Globe takes place in Varley’s " Eight Worlds" universe. It was nominated for Best Science Fiction Novel during the 1999 Locus Awards. The book takes places a few years after the conclusion of Steel Beach. The Golden Globe is a 1998 science fiction novel by American writer John Varley.
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