I first read "The End of the World News" back in middle school (about ten years ago) and still remember it clearly. His parallel narratives--a future Earth waiting for The End, the waning years of cranky old Freud, and the libretto for a musical about Trotsky's visit to New York--work together beautifully, like a more coherent "Slaughterhouse-Five." Still one of my all-time favorites.

This book has three different storylines, including Trotsky and space travel, and its never clear as you read through the chapters how they are related, but the plotlines are captivating. And at the end, he does a masterful job of tying it all together. Simply fascinating.

It will be hard to find this book, but if you do, definitely buy it.

Like most Burgess, this is a vastly entertaining book, but you can't just stand back and admire the architecture of this tale. Human characters dealing with super-human problems draw you in to this discussion of the uses of power and the purpose of life.

At first, the interwoven stories jar. You hurry to get back to the interrupted story. What happened next? To whom? But each story blooms, each story comments nimbly on the others and takes its own place in a masterwork by a masterwriter.