The Old Reactor

Catching up with Moldenke, the protagonist ("hero" seems too strong a word) of Ohle's 1972 novel Motorman, should be like running into an old friend. But for the first time with Ohle's writing, I felt that I was just getting more of the same. The grim details of his dystopian world are by now familiar, and this time around he brings nothing new to the bleak comedy he wrings from them. That said, the writing remains funny and horrific, and Moldenke's world is uncomfortably easy to imagine.