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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book starts out insufferable and is reasonably enjoyable (or at least suspenseful) by the end. Everett gets stuck on mocking certain philosophical theories and forgets to tell a story sometimes; when he gets his feet back under him, 'Glyph' is compellingly weird. But good look making it through the solid wall of psychobabble at the beginning of the book.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
funny
medium-paced
While I really enjoyed reading Glyph, I'm afraid most of it went over my head.
Not only is the baby in the book (Ralph) way smarter than me, but so, obviously is Mr. Everett.
I got some of the jokes, and much of the book made me laugh, but I'm sure I missed a lot too.
I've already got another one lined up, so this hasn't dissuaded me from venturing further into his work, just hope the next one doesn't require a dictionary, an encyclopedia, and numerous google searches to complete.
Not only is the baby in the book (Ralph) way smarter than me, but so, obviously is Mr. Everett.
I got some of the jokes, and much of the book made me laugh, but I'm sure I missed a lot too.
I've already got another one lined up, so this hasn't dissuaded me from venturing further into his work, just hope the next one doesn't require a dictionary, an encyclopedia, and numerous google searches to complete.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Glyph (pub. 1999) is written by a genius baby so reminiscent of the fetus narrator in Nutshell (2016) that I wondered if Ian McEwan (Nutshell) borrowed from this book. But that's where the similarity ends.
A couple of chapters into this book, I found myself exhausted from constant leaping—couch to computer to look up poststructural philosophy, Latin, German, French, obscure historic bits, etc. I was almost ready to admit I'm not well educated enough to read this satire—about academic thought and expression versus passion, existential despair, and a longing for truth—when the story got good. So finally I simply accepted that I'm not well educated enough (just like so many of the adults who are bollixed by narrator genius baby Ralph in this wild abduction caper) and I read the darned story, allowing facts and meaning to fly over my head with impunity.
It turns out that's not a bad way to read this dense but unaccountably fast book. The story was always inventive, sometimes very funny, and sometimes sad—as in the other two Everett books that I've read, there is a longing to find the beginning of truth that I relate to on a heart level. Even though this book feels like an exercise about intellectualism that gets in its own way (unless you are an academic philosopher, philologist, art historian, and mathematician), and even though the references and a lot of the genius wordplay were beyond my scope, it moves me.
I read Glyph because I became so enamored with Percival Everett's work after reading So Much Blue and I Am Not Sidney Poitier that I wanted to read everything he has written. And I am still enamored by his imagination, his storytelling, and his longing for an illusory beginning of truth. On to the next book!
A couple of chapters into this book, I found myself exhausted from constant leaping—couch to computer to look up poststructural philosophy, Latin, German, French, obscure historic bits, etc. I was almost ready to admit I'm not well educated enough to read this satire—about academic thought and expression versus passion, existential despair, and a longing for truth—when the story got good. So finally I simply accepted that I'm not well educated enough (just like so many of the adults who are bollixed by narrator genius baby Ralph in this wild abduction caper) and I read the darned story, allowing facts and meaning to fly over my head with impunity.
It turns out that's not a bad way to read this dense but unaccountably fast book. The story was always inventive, sometimes very funny, and sometimes sad—as in the other two Everett books that I've read, there is a longing to find the beginning of truth that I relate to on a heart level. Even though this book feels like an exercise about intellectualism that gets in its own way (unless you are an academic philosopher, philologist, art historian, and mathematician), and even though the references and a lot of the genius wordplay were beyond my scope, it moves me.
I read Glyph because I became so enamored with Percival Everett's work after reading So Much Blue and I Am Not Sidney Poitier that I wanted to read everything he has written. And I am still enamored by his imagination, his storytelling, and his longing for an illusory beginning of truth. On to the next book!