by Matt Ruff

isbn: 0871136414
subject: Fiction and Literature, SF, Humor
finished: 9/2/1998

"Red dye no. 32," Penzias explained. Baker had assumed the splotches on the man's lips were bruises of some kind, but now he realized that Penzias's teeth and gums -- the entire inside of his mouth, in fact -- were stained crimson. "I drink twelve fluid ounces each day."
"Of food coloring?"
"Low level carcinogen. I'm building up a tolerance."
"To what?"
"To cancer."
Baker kept a poker face. "Is that so?"
"It's necessary," said Penzias. "It's no use anymore to hope you won't get it. Too much poison in the air and water, and no matter where you hide it'll find you. So the only answer is to build up a tolerance. Mutate or die."

Picture Snow Crash meets The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what Sewer, Gas, and Electric is about. It's both good satire and good SF, it has some fun literary references, and has as characters a mutant shark named Meisterbrau and a computer simulation of Ayn Rand. What more could you ask for?