Do not read if you are an arachnophobe. Story about an American husband and father who was poisoned and shrank by 1/7th of an inch a day. The book alternates from the times when he was bigger and the times he was tiny, with the challenges he faced both mentally and physically. I kept on expecting either a cure or some explanation, some relief for the man...you have to wait till the very end of the story for that! Easy to read, and well thought out. ( )

Scott Carey is shrinking by 1/7 inch per day. As he is now only an inch tall he only has a week left before he disappears altogether. We follow his last week with flashbacks to earlier stages of his malady.

I was curious about what would happen when he lost the final 1/7 of an inch and that was really the only thing that kept me going till the end. I liked some of the later flashbacks but the continuous "woe is me" in the earlier ones got on my nerves and the main story of Carey's last week in the cellar and his battles with the spider and struggles to move about didn't hold my interest at all. ( )

If you liked the movie, you'll like the book. Matheson wrote the novel first then the screenplay. While there are changes in structure -- the focus is on survival in the basement, with everything else told in flashback -- a more faithful visualization would be hard to imagine. Though people mostly remember the adventures -- fleeing the pet cat, battling the spider for a crust of bread -- what both versions are mostly about the character's increasing estrangement, demasculinization, and sexual frustration. Size matters. Sexual frustration occupies quite a bit of time in the book, though even in print the mores of 1950s prevented any mention of the main character taking things into his own hand. As a reading experience, the book is pretty downbeat. The hero is in constant pain and peril except in the flashbacks.

Recommended. ( )

Entertaining and engaging story. A journey through despondence to triumph.

A phenomenally good SF novel, that takes a very simple concept and extracts huge amounts of intellectual and visceral excitement from it. The tiny man fighting spiders narrate that I expected is only half the story, the other half is a thought provoking and moving examination of modern masculinity. Well worth a read. ( )