Gun, with Occasional Music is the first novel by Jonathan Lethem, published in 1994. It was nominated for the Nebula Award that year.
The novel, a blend of Film Noir-style Detective Drama and Science Fiction, is set in near-future dystopia where asking questions is considered incredibly rude, and both children and animals are genetically modified to have the intelligence of adult humans. Additionally, almost the entire adult population is addicted to free government-provided drugs with various functions.
Conrad Metcalf, a down-on-his-luck Private Inquisitor, discovers that his most recent former client, a prominent urologist named Maynard Stanhunt, who hired him to spy on his wife, was murdered. Orton Angwine, the primary suspect in the murder, hires Metcalf to protect him and/or clear his name.
As he investigates, Metcalf becomes more and more personally involved in the case, and continues to try to find answers despite being warned off by multiple parties, including a gangster named Danny Phoneblum and his kangaroo thug, Stanhunt's former partner, and certain members of the Inquisitor's Office.
This novel provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The novel takes place some time after 2008 (Metcalf sees an old New Year's poster lying around at one point), after widespread advances in genetic engineering and pharmaceutical development.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Metcalf is a P.I. in a world where asking questions is considered socially unacceptable verging on illegal, and as such is not particularly loved by most of the rest of society.
- Chekhov's Gun: Metcalf's floating anti-grav pen.
- Childless Dystopia: A variation - most toddlers seem to have been genetically modified to become babyheads, who have the minds of adults in toddler bodies. It is unclear if all children are genetically modified or not, but "normal" children don't seem to be in evidence. The only childlike beings Metcalf encounters are young evolved animals.
- Creepy Child: Babyheads are genetically-modified toddlers with distended bald heads who possess adult-level intelligence. They have their own sort of subculture including "baby bars" and tend to be alcoholics.
- Cryo-Prison: Criminals and/or people who run out of karma are cryogenically frozen for various lengths of time. This happens to Metcalf himself late in the novel.
- Deadpan Snarker: Metcalf certainly qualifies. One example, as he's berating the kangaroo Danny Phoneblum sent to scare him off the case:“Tell him next time he wants to talk to me, don't send a marsupial.”
- Downer Ending: At the end of Part 1, Metcalf gets sent to the freezer for six years and once unfrozen, learns that private investigation has been outlawed.
- At the end of the novel, he gets put back into the freezer for the murder of Joey Castle, which he committed.
- Fantastic Noir: A private eye noir story set in a society where asking questions is taboo. Also, the "evolved" animals and the babyheads.
- Fantastic Racism: Metcalf is not a fan of evolved animals. He doesn't like babyheads either, but that seems to be at least partially due to the fact that they tend to be cynical jerkasses.
- Government Drug Enforcement: Snortable drugs collectively known as "Make" are provided for free from "Makeries." Examples include Forgetol and Acceptol, but there are even stronger, albeit illegal injectable drugs such as Blanketrol available as well.
- Hardboiled Detective: Conrad Metcalf and Walter Surface both.
- Mind-Control Device: The "slaveboxes" used by Danny Phoneblum's organization and other criminals.
- People Puppets: The bodies of some people who were cryogenically frozen are hijacked by various criminal enterprises and implanted with slaveboxes so that the bodies can be controlled and used (often for prostitution) without the person's knowledge or consent.
- Police Brutality: The Inquisitors have a reputation for roughing people up. Metcalf notes that that was why he quit working for them and later gets sucker-punched by Inquisitor Morgenlander when he refuses to give up his investigation.
- Private Eye Monologue: Lampshaded by Metcalf, who narrates the novel this way. He even uses the word "dame" to describe one woman he meets and occasionally congratulates himself on his use of metaphors.
- Uplifted Animal: Genetically-modified animals that walk upright like humans and can talk feature in the novel. Metcalf notes that they have taken over many of the more menial service jobs once occupied by humans. Young "evolved" animals can be adopted by humans, and it is not illegal for humans to have sexual relationships with evolved adult animals.
