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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
This book has the best chaotic cat-in-kitchen-scene in the history of literature, period.
First, thank you, Black Oxford aka Michael, for reviewing this wild book.
Second, this is a perfect book for me: hilarious, wild, full of profound understanding of silence or All That Is or Ein Sof, soaked in learning about trauma treatments, self-actualization work, and the complexity of our psychology and notions about what is real or even an entity separate from other entities. So I’m kind of amazed (1) that it got published, and (2) that author Nicola Barker and this book appear to be wildly popular in the U.K.
This work is nothing like Haruki Murakami’s but I find the popularity of both authors’ work with people who have never studied World Wisdom Traditions or complicated psychological concepts mind-boggling. Murakami’s meticulous cleanliness seems to put readers in a trance, even if they don’t cognitively understand what’s going on. Conversely, Barker’s anarchic sentences, jumping font sizes, shrieks and blank spaces communicate the same kind of esoteric journey that cannot really fit into language.
This is a free-for-all bumper car ride between people and their ids, filled with abrupt and perfect transitions that are so logical in their illogic that they are funny. And I followed every second of the sudden changes of direction and not only laughed, but felt bathed in Ein Sof—the silence.
I have no idea who would like this book. The Guardian cover blurb calls Nicola Barker “a genius.” I second that, and if I could figure out her popular appeal, I’d steal it.
Second, this is a perfect book for me: hilarious, wild, full of profound understanding of silence or All That Is or Ein Sof, soaked in learning about trauma treatments, self-actualization work, and the complexity of our psychology and notions about what is real or even an entity separate from other entities. So I’m kind of amazed (1) that it got published, and (2) that author Nicola Barker and this book appear to be wildly popular in the U.K.
This work is nothing like Haruki Murakami’s but I find the popularity of both authors’ work with people who have never studied World Wisdom Traditions or complicated psychological concepts mind-boggling. Murakami’s meticulous cleanliness seems to put readers in a trance, even if they don’t cognitively understand what’s going on. Conversely, Barker’s anarchic sentences, jumping font sizes, shrieks and blank spaces communicate the same kind of esoteric journey that cannot really fit into language.
This is a free-for-all bumper car ride between people and their ids, filled with abrupt and perfect transitions that are so logical in their illogic that they are funny. And I followed every second of the sudden changes of direction and not only laughed, but felt bathed in Ein Sof—the silence.
I have no idea who would like this book. The Guardian cover blurb calls Nicola Barker “a genius.” I second that, and if I could figure out her popular appeal, I’d steal it.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This novella is the Barker's follow up to H(A)PPY, a deconstructive fiction sci fi I read a week or so ago, and it's really funny to see how the style of H(A)PPY makes this twisting little character study unravel.
Barker begins narrating her editing and rewriting and the story ends up eating itself. By the end, she refuses to finish her narrative because the characters and telling of the story are all limited to where she was and what she experienced as she wrote, and ending the story ends he relationship with that slice of her own life. Deliciously mad and inventive little pocket of weirdness.
Barker begins narrating her editing and rewriting and the story ends up eating itself. By the end, she refuses to finish her narrative because the characters and telling of the story are all limited to where she was and what she experienced as she wrote, and ending the story ends he relationship with that slice of her own life. Deliciously mad and inventive little pocket of weirdness.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Nicola Barker continues to test the limits of fiction in this book, and does so as flawlessly as she did in H(A)PPY.
'I Am Sovereign: Unconventional and plotless, but sure to impress critics', my review in the Irish Times.
What an incredibly clever book, there is so much depth to it, despite being virtually no plot at all. I think I will struggle to explain why I loved it so much. The book (I think) fuses both fiction and non-fiction. It takes place entirely during a 20 minute house viewing. The characters narrate, are observed by one another and also the author. The author interjects at points which makes her a key character in the story as well. I kind of imagined her on the ceiling narrating her writing and character/story development process while the fictional characters are frozen beneath her awaiting their next instruction. I loved this book, it's so unlike anything I have read before. I could absolutely see this making a very engaging stage performance, if it does become one I will be first in line for a ticket.
Self-Help and Its Discontents
Nicola Barker is a master of literary slapstick - psychological as well as physical. The choreography of her set pieces (packed into 20 minutes of a house viewing in Llandudno) is excelled by no one. She is Chaplin with a pen (or touch pad). She could have written scripts for Peter Sellers or Rowan Atkinson. And she has no hesitation about inviting the reader into rehearsals either. Her characters are inadequate in all the right ways - too much or too little motherly love, striving to be anything other than what they are, and, of course, unrelentingly hapless. They are determined to improve themselves. But this means fighting against the very selves which they are. They are ridiculously neurotic, therefore, which makes them... well, lovable.
Nicola Barker is a master of literary slapstick - psychological as well as physical. The choreography of her set pieces (packed into 20 minutes of a house viewing in Llandudno) is excelled by no one. She is Chaplin with a pen (or touch pad). She could have written scripts for Peter Sellers or Rowan Atkinson. And she has no hesitation about inviting the reader into rehearsals either. Her characters are inadequate in all the right ways - too much or too little motherly love, striving to be anything other than what they are, and, of course, unrelentingly hapless. They are determined to improve themselves. But this means fighting against the very selves which they are. They are ridiculously neurotic, therefore, which makes them... well, lovable.
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes