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The Man in the Tree
Gene Anderson, an eight-foot-tall giant, uses his ability to reach into other dimensions first to become rich and then to reform the world
246 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
3 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Damon Knight
530 books91 followersDamon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
Knight's first professional sale was a cartoon drawing to a science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His first story, "Resilience", was published in 1941. He is best known as the author of "To Serve Man", which was adapted for The Twilight Zone. He was a recipient of the Hugo Award, founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), cofounder of the National Fantasy Fan Federation, cofounder of the Milford Writer's Workshop, and cofounder of the Clarion Writers Workshop. Knight lived in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife Kate Wilhelm.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 22, 2013
He's rather more than two and a half meters tall. After trying various other things, he decides to join the circus. They're glad to have him. On his second day there, he's approached by a sexy woman.
"I'm a sword-swallower," she says significantly.
"Huh?" he replies.
She looks at him disbelievingly. "You mean you don't know about giants and sword-swallowers?"
"I'm a sword-swallower," she says significantly.
"Huh?" he replies.
She looks at him disbelievingly. "You mean you don't know about giants and sword-swallowers?"
October 6, 2015
Interesting but ultimately disappointing tale of a Christ-like child in rural America who becomes, inevitably, misunderstood and hounded into isolation from society.
Gene Anderson is born with the power to bend time and reach into alternative universes, from where he can take anything back, i.e. money. He grows to be a giant, six foot by the age of nine, scaring the children and adults around him, despite a placid nature.
After he uses his powers to defend himself from the sheriff's son and accidentally kills him, he goes on the run, hiding out his youth in a tree, a sculptor's studio and a freak show, before he uses his power and wealth to try and change the world for the better.
I really want to like Damon Knight. He played such a huge facilitatory role as editor and mentor for countless excellent science fiction writers over the years, and he looked great in photos with that Old Testament beard of his.
But both novels I have read by him have been uneven and shoddily plotted. The Man in the Tree spends an awful lot of time as a manhunt story, then very little time investigating the wider themes and implications of Gene Anderson's abilities.
There are deep philosophical questions being raised and examined here, no doubt, but there are some flat passages, some banal dialogue (particularly when his followers discuss how Gene can best promote his message to the masses) and an abrupt, unsatisfying last quarter.
Similar to Stranger in a Strange Land in many ways, it's better than that childish, overrated nonsense, but it could have been so much better still if it Knight where to go with his premise.
Gene Anderson is born with the power to bend time and reach into alternative universes, from where he can take anything back, i.e. money. He grows to be a giant, six foot by the age of nine, scaring the children and adults around him, despite a placid nature.
After he uses his powers to defend himself from the sheriff's son and accidentally kills him, he goes on the run, hiding out his youth in a tree, a sculptor's studio and a freak show, before he uses his power and wealth to try and change the world for the better.
I really want to like Damon Knight. He played such a huge facilitatory role as editor and mentor for countless excellent science fiction writers over the years, and he looked great in photos with that Old Testament beard of his.
But both novels I have read by him have been uneven and shoddily plotted. The Man in the Tree spends an awful lot of time as a manhunt story, then very little time investigating the wider themes and implications of Gene Anderson's abilities.
There are deep philosophical questions being raised and examined here, no doubt, but there are some flat passages, some banal dialogue (particularly when his followers discuss how Gene can best promote his message to the masses) and an abrupt, unsatisfying last quarter.
Similar to Stranger in a Strange Land in many ways, it's better than that childish, overrated nonsense, but it could have been so much better still if it Knight where to go with his premise.
June 20, 2013
I see some low ratings for this book, and I am quite surprised! I was captivated by the characters and plot. Perhaps it's a bit simplistic for more cultured readers, but I found to weaving of mystical philosophy into the story line refreshing.
March 2, 2009
This could have been a pretty good book. An eccentric with mysterious powers, persecuted as a child and then pursued throughout his adolescence and adulthood by an unhinged man bent on revenge? It could have been great. But it wasn't.
At times, it reads like a much larger novel, condensed--here we leap forward two years, there another eight, etc.--and there seems to be more filler than actual plot. This approach can work when the writer manages to imbue some emotion and into the characters and their interactions; unfortunately, Knight missed many opportunities for tension, and the places where he attempted to add some fell disappointingly flat. Gene's pursuer keeps finding him pretty much immediately, based on deductions too accurate and non-intuitive to be believable, especially in a character that never seemed overly bright to begin with. Gene likes to draw, so he MUST be in art school...in California? He MUST have gone East? He's tall, so he MUST be with the carnival? Really?
At other times, "The Man in the Tree" seems like several half-formed novels, chopped-up and ineffectively blended together into a meandering, pointless mish-mash. There's the half-formed chase-and-revenge story which fizzles out anticlimactically, the tale of self-discovery that never quite takes off, and, abruptly and with little lead-in, the Messianic mission that composes the last few chapters. Each one of these ideas could have been an interesting book on its own (or together, in the hands of a more skilled writer), but it just feels like a great big piece is missing.
Peppered throughout "The Man in the Tree" are clunky passages and stilted dialogue that seem designed mostly to show off how much the author knows about "intellectual" subjects; I can see no other purpose for most of it, so that's the only conclusion I can draw. There's no real explanation for why someone who's been on the run since the age of nine would have the knowledge base that Gene does (reading, I guess?), nor any indication of the internal progression that takes him to the (supposed) climax of the novel. Important things aren't even noticed, let alone explained, yet pages are devoted to lists and descriptions of the items Gene took from a camp when he first left home, or to pointless discussions among throwaway characters. And, ultimately, all of the characters are throwaway, even Gene himself. They all have the same voice, making the jumps in viewpoint hard to follow, thus muddling the story even more.
I guess this is supposed to be an allegory, but it didn't quite achieve that purpose, either. Oh, well. At least it was a quick read.
At times, it reads like a much larger novel, condensed--here we leap forward two years, there another eight, etc.--and there seems to be more filler than actual plot. This approach can work when the writer manages to imbue some emotion and into the characters and their interactions; unfortunately, Knight missed many opportunities for tension, and the places where he attempted to add some fell disappointingly flat. Gene's pursuer keeps finding him pretty much immediately, based on deductions too accurate and non-intuitive to be believable, especially in a character that never seemed overly bright to begin with. Gene likes to draw, so he MUST be in art school...in California? He MUST have gone East? He's tall, so he MUST be with the carnival? Really?
At other times, "The Man in the Tree" seems like several half-formed novels, chopped-up and ineffectively blended together into a meandering, pointless mish-mash. There's the half-formed chase-and-revenge story which fizzles out anticlimactically, the tale of self-discovery that never quite takes off, and, abruptly and with little lead-in, the Messianic mission that composes the last few chapters. Each one of these ideas could have been an interesting book on its own (or together, in the hands of a more skilled writer), but it just feels like a great big piece is missing.
Peppered throughout "The Man in the Tree" are clunky passages and stilted dialogue that seem designed mostly to show off how much the author knows about "intellectual" subjects; I can see no other purpose for most of it, so that's the only conclusion I can draw. There's no real explanation for why someone who's been on the run since the age of nine would have the knowledge base that Gene does (reading, I guess?), nor any indication of the internal progression that takes him to the (supposed) climax of the novel. Important things aren't even noticed, let alone explained, yet pages are devoted to lists and descriptions of the items Gene took from a camp when he first left home, or to pointless discussions among throwaway characters. And, ultimately, all of the characters are throwaway, even Gene himself. They all have the same voice, making the jumps in viewpoint hard to follow, thus muddling the story even more.
I guess this is supposed to be an allegory, but it didn't quite achieve that purpose, either. Oh, well. At least it was a quick read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2021
Its hard to write something about this book. I almost DNF it, but at around 80% of the story it started to get interesting. The at the beginning seemingly random circumstances around the main character finally made sense. Weird but interesting.
September 1, 2009
The Man In The Tree
by Damon Knight
Berkley, 1984
ISBN: 0-425-06006-3
Cover Illustration by Carl Lundgren
Science Fiction
Impeccably written and thought-provoking, you’ll find yourself asking “is Gene Anderson Christ or the Anti-Christ?”
This book will appeal to: Neil Gaiman fans and sci-fi buffs who enjoy the work of Bradbury.
The Man In The Tree
Gene Anderson discovers he has a talent unlike any other in the world. As such, his childhood should have been a thing of wonder. Instead, he ends up a killer on the run, grows into an eight-and-half-foot giant and lives a queer and uncertain life. As he matures, Gene becomes a poet, a millionaire and even a circus freak. He’s also a prophet. Wherein lies Gene’s greatest problem. Is he Christ or is he the Anti-Christ? Not even Gene can answer that question.
Beginning his disturbing novel with a tell-tale poem, Damon Knight presents the reader with a wonderful gift—if only he or she has the imagination to appreciate it.
“When I was young we were giants’ captives.
They stripped us, tortured us with facecloths,
Left us to endure alone
The moonwashed branches on the windows
In the long clock-ticking night.
We voyaged deep under that black ocean
Where Earth eats her daughters in silence,
And always returned. By day we had red-jam smiles,
Breadcrumb fingers, corn hair.
In our pockets were stones, gray string, nails
Scavenged as we went. We knew the secret
Undersides of things, the roofs of tables.
Only insects were smaller than ourselves.
We caught locusts and made thm spit tobacco,
Poured dust on pismires, puffed ladybirds away.
We dreamed of being smaller still: built pebble fences,
Roads in dirt, peered with one eye
Under green blades. All Eden was
Our afternoon. It was the time before
They taught us time: before we knew."
- Gene Anderson
I found The Man In The Tree to be a marvelous look at the whole idea of Christ. Knight turns and twists our preconceptions before we even have a hint of what he’s up to. The end disturbs.
This novel is my favourite book of all time. Not ever considered popular and never discussed in his biographies, I consider The Man In The Tree to be classic Damon Knight. He always had something to say, and he wrote with a biting wit that was sometimes humorous, sometimes risque, sometimes wry and, in my opinion, often dark.
Out of print, but still available on sites like Amazon, this is a recommended read.
Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009
by Damon Knight
Berkley, 1984
ISBN: 0-425-06006-3
Cover Illustration by Carl Lundgren
Science Fiction
Impeccably written and thought-provoking, you’ll find yourself asking “is Gene Anderson Christ or the Anti-Christ?”
This book will appeal to: Neil Gaiman fans and sci-fi buffs who enjoy the work of Bradbury.
The Man In The Tree
Gene Anderson discovers he has a talent unlike any other in the world. As such, his childhood should have been a thing of wonder. Instead, he ends up a killer on the run, grows into an eight-and-half-foot giant and lives a queer and uncertain life. As he matures, Gene becomes a poet, a millionaire and even a circus freak. He’s also a prophet. Wherein lies Gene’s greatest problem. Is he Christ or is he the Anti-Christ? Not even Gene can answer that question.
Beginning his disturbing novel with a tell-tale poem, Damon Knight presents the reader with a wonderful gift—if only he or she has the imagination to appreciate it.
“When I was young we were giants’ captives.
They stripped us, tortured us with facecloths,
Left us to endure alone
The moonwashed branches on the windows
In the long clock-ticking night.
We voyaged deep under that black ocean
Where Earth eats her daughters in silence,
And always returned. By day we had red-jam smiles,
Breadcrumb fingers, corn hair.
In our pockets were stones, gray string, nails
Scavenged as we went. We knew the secret
Undersides of things, the roofs of tables.
Only insects were smaller than ourselves.
We caught locusts and made thm spit tobacco,
Poured dust on pismires, puffed ladybirds away.
We dreamed of being smaller still: built pebble fences,
Roads in dirt, peered with one eye
Under green blades. All Eden was
Our afternoon. It was the time before
They taught us time: before we knew."
- Gene Anderson
I found The Man In The Tree to be a marvelous look at the whole idea of Christ. Knight turns and twists our preconceptions before we even have a hint of what he’s up to. The end disturbs.
This novel is my favourite book of all time. Not ever considered popular and never discussed in his biographies, I consider The Man In The Tree to be classic Damon Knight. He always had something to say, and he wrote with a biting wit that was sometimes humorous, sometimes risque, sometimes wry and, in my opinion, often dark.
Out of print, but still available on sites like Amazon, this is a recommended read.
Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009
May 2, 2017
An enjoyable read. Believable main character with special powers and insight into his growing into maturity and skill. Being pursued by a tenacious evil character adds suspense and inertia to his life.
The science part is reasonably presented and the twist into scifi doesn't leap into the absurd.
I do have problems with the irony of good scifi authors setting them selves up as experts in religion by preaching to you how established religions are false when their arguments are rebounded from the self-authored fantasy you are reading! Then they go over the top with their own self-created messianic hero which turns out to be a mirror image from the religion they just tried to prove is false. It makes you wonder why they bothered ranting against established religion in the first place--it doesn't add to the story and actually diminishes the impact. Just let your story develop to reveal the messianic hero--the reader can fill in the blanks from their own experience on the foundation you have prepared for self-reflection.
The science part is reasonably presented and the twist into scifi doesn't leap into the absurd.
I do have problems with the irony of good scifi authors setting them selves up as experts in religion by preaching to you how established religions are false when their arguments are rebounded from the self-authored fantasy you are reading! Then they go over the top with their own self-created messianic hero which turns out to be a mirror image from the religion they just tried to prove is false. It makes you wonder why they bothered ranting against established religion in the first place--it doesn't add to the story and actually diminishes the impact. Just let your story develop to reveal the messianic hero--the reader can fill in the blanks from their own experience on the foundation you have prepared for self-reflection.
June 23, 2011
A wonderful tale that is about Gene Anderson, a person with special powers that could have only been handed down by God. What I liked about this book is that it focuses not on the powers, but Gene's life and the people he encounters. The books starts when he is young and you follow him into many years of his adult life. Of course, not everything is easy for Gene and he has to contend with those trying to hurt him, kill him and use him as well as complex relationships and the fact he has to learn everything about life as he goes. There's some deep philosophical statements and questions in the book and I'm sure I am going to read this one again within the year.
Read
May 27, 2020This book, for me, is a classic. I have read it at least 4 times and just about to start my 5th go. It is intelligent, mysterious, creepy and altogether a fabulous novel. Basically science fiction, but the plight of Gene Anderson in the novel is sad and thought provoking.
March 15, 2023
This is the story of Gene Anderson, a giant who has powers to duplicate objects, and to heal. As a child, he was bullied for his great size. When one such incident resulted in a boy's death, Gene knew he had to disappear. The novel follows him through his life as an artist, a poet, and a tall man in a carnival freak show, going from town to town, state to state, country to country. The father of the boy who was killed is determined to find Gene and kill him. This could be read as a religious analogy, as Gene might be seen as a Christ-like figure. In any case, it is one hell of a novel -- absorbing from beginning to end.
December 24, 2010
I just found a list of books I read as a teen. I have to admit I don't remember this one, but I rated it very highly at the time.
August 24, 2011
Odd book.
April 1, 2017
Glimpses of deep mystery in a spooky pulp
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews