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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
slow-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
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3645878.html
Like other Harrison that I have read, it didn't really work for me. There's an intricate narrative set in contemporary England, the same people turn up in your life over and over, and some green people are emerging from the rivers (the only non-white people mentioned in the book). I'm afraid it left me rather cold - obviously I am missing something.
Like other Harrison that I have read, it didn't really work for me. There's an intricate narrative set in contemporary England, the same people turn up in your life over and over, and some green people are emerging from the rivers (the only non-white people mentioned in the book). I'm afraid it left me rather cold - obviously I am missing something.
It’s rare that you read quote after hyperbolic quote about a book and end up not only thinking they’re all pretty much accurate, but also exist because they’re evidence of readers trying to articulate what they’ve just read. But that’s the case with this astonishing novel. It’s almost impossible to express what’s it like and this is almost certainly intentional, because it needs to be experienced rather than described. It’s one of those rare pieces of art that can only be in the form it’s presented to you in. It can only be a novel and thank god it’s this novel by this writer
It toys with post Brexit malaise, conspiracy thriller (of a sort), cosmic horror, psychogeography, post modernism, fantasy, horror, realism… but it does so while deftly dodging being subsumed by any of those genres. It’s quite careful to provide you with about 80% of an explanation - of a sort - to the central mysteries, with lots of clever call backs and allusions, but these really act as a way of hiding the join in the narrative Moebius strip. It, to use the watery imagery the book is literally seeped in, glides and turns like eddies in the water, and the closer you get to the strands culminating in some way, the further it actually pushes the disorientation. You’re lost in the narrative
It’s so carefully written and beautifully put together. It’s very accessible but also wildly keen to keep you from reading it in any definitive way. It’s a book that wants to keep you at a distance from any meaning for as long as it possibly can. It’s also one of the best books I have ever read for creating a sort of feeling of true nightmarishness. Two sequences - again echoing each other somewhat - in a boarding house and across a graveyard are almost unspeakably menacing for the way it never fully articulates what you’re seeing and lets you fill in the truly disturbing details yourself. It’s an astonishing book, it truly is
It toys with post Brexit malaise, conspiracy thriller (of a sort), cosmic horror, psychogeography, post modernism, fantasy, horror, realism… but it does so while deftly dodging being subsumed by any of those genres. It’s quite careful to provide you with about 80% of an explanation - of a sort - to the central mysteries, with lots of clever call backs and allusions, but these really act as a way of hiding the join in the narrative Moebius strip. It, to use the watery imagery the book is literally seeped in, glides and turns like eddies in the water, and the closer you get to the strands culminating in some way, the further it actually pushes the disorientation. You’re lost in the narrative
It’s so carefully written and beautifully put together. It’s very accessible but also wildly keen to keep you from reading it in any definitive way. It’s a book that wants to keep you at a distance from any meaning for as long as it possibly can. It’s also one of the best books I have ever read for creating a sort of feeling of true nightmarishness. Two sequences - again echoing each other somewhat - in a boarding house and across a graveyard are almost unspeakably menacing for the way it never fully articulates what you’re seeing and lets you fill in the truly disturbing details yourself. It’s an astonishing book, it truly is
I clearly didn't get it. I think it was supposed to be funny ? but it was honestly just a slog through one seemingly absurd situation after another. Nothing felt real. I'm guessing this was all some sort of allegory - perhaps for Brexit since that's mentioned a few times ? - but yeah, I really didn't get it.
I can't honestly say who this would appeal to unless you are particularly fond of pedestrian slice-of-life type stories with only the barest hint at something a bit paranormal. This is barely sci-fi, more just like literary weird or maybe surreal ? I honestly don't know, but I was bored and couldn't connect with any of the characters and never really understood what was going on. There were also a few descriptions of women and diabetics in this that rubbed me the wrong way so clearly this book was just not for me.
I can't honestly say who this would appeal to unless you are particularly fond of pedestrian slice-of-life type stories with only the barest hint at something a bit paranormal. This is barely sci-fi, more just like literary weird or maybe surreal ? I honestly don't know, but I was bored and couldn't connect with any of the characters and never really understood what was going on. There were also a few descriptions of women and diabetics in this that rubbed me the wrong way so clearly this book was just not for me.
I'm not sure what it was about or what happened in it, but I know that I really really liked it.
If you tried to take a holiday from yourself, where would you expect to go? Where might you come back to?
I loved the lexically-rich prose of this book but the obtuse nature of the story meant I was left feeling unsatisfied at the end. If there was a message there, I failed to comprehend it. Also, I found the main characters and their situations rather depressing. Both came across as observers rather than participants in their own lives and were not particularly likeable or relatable.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A strange, mysterious and grubby world, excellently written but too strange to fully engage with. A familiar world seen through murky water. A vision of Britain drenched in dream logic.
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated