Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Do you want a story where everything makes sense? Do you like neatly connected narrative logic? Do like likable, reliable narrators?
If so, this story is probably not for you.
I liked the author's willingness not to be formulaic. I enjoyed the journey down meandering paths that take the readers to kooky 1980s outposts of pulp fiction novels and Christian TV and backward masking and mail-order gaming. And then there is the sideways approach to the existential question of absurdity and meaning--c'est fantastique! The whys and wherefores that led our narrator to take the action that would radically transform him--both physically and psychologically--kept my interest to the very end.
But I think, overall, this book falls just short of being really good. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It fascinated me, but it didn't really move me--though it almost did. But it made me think, and I do like that.
This is a very talented writer, and this is a wonderful first effort. He asks hard questions, or, more aptly, he dances around them. He doesn't give any answers, which some readers won't like, but I did.
If so, this story is probably not for you.
I liked the author's willingness not to be formulaic. I enjoyed the journey down meandering paths that take the readers to kooky 1980s outposts of pulp fiction novels and Christian TV and backward masking and mail-order gaming. And then there is the sideways approach to the existential question of absurdity and meaning--c'est fantastique! The whys and wherefores that led our narrator to take the action that would radically transform him--both physically and psychologically--kept my interest to the very end.
But I think, overall, this book falls just short of being really good. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It fascinated me, but it didn't really move me--though it almost did. But it made me think, and I do like that.
This is a very talented writer, and this is a wonderful first effort. He asks hard questions, or, more aptly, he dances around them. He doesn't give any answers, which some readers won't like, but I did.
challenging
dark
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s the sort of book you read in three hours and then think about it for ten.
It’s an elliptical novel which, while going back in time, circles closer and closer to the original incident that set the whole thing in motion, the incident in which Sean, the narrator, lost his face (literally). His new condition of looking like a one person freak show has him practically house-bound, so he invents other worlds and sets his mail-subscription role playing games there. Sean is not the sort of guy who was very popular before. When his mother worries he would be lonely after he leaves the hospital, he says: “I was going to be lonely anyway.”
The whole thing is about choices, like in Trace Italian, Sean’s game. You ‘choose your own adventure’. But the choice is an illusion. You take all these turns, but you can never really lose, and you can never really win – that’s the way the whole thing is designed, to keep you playing. The most daring think you can do is to opt out and leave the game altogether, like Chris, the guy who quit on his own terms. Most of the time we don’t know why we do the things we do, the choices we make follow some unexplained impulses and we struggle to provide a coherent explanation to back up our decision making. Sometimes we decide the best thing to do would be to dig a hole and stay in it, and when we realise it was a mistake it’s too late and we’re too weak to crawl out. This happened in this book too. We don’t know why we do what we do at the time, let alone later. Our old selves are a mystery to us. We keep the memories but the hero of those memories is a stranger to us.
The phrase 'Wolf in White Van' comes from the supposed subliminal messages hidden in rock and metal songs. You know, if you play them backward, Satan will speak to you. This is also what this novel does with its back to front structure. So what is the hidden message here? Is there any? Or am I just hearing things because I decided I would hear them? Maybe the supposed message is just accidental or maybe it can be only understood by a chosen few. The narrator asks why the devil can’t speak clearly, why he hides and obscures his message, which seems rather counter-productive from the marketing point of view. Similar complaints were voiced by some reviewers who just wanted the book to speak to them clearly and explain everything in capital letters. Ha ha. That’s not how the devil talks. Or John Darnielle.
I would’ve probably given this book five stars if I was one of those sad, misunderstood teenagers. But I wasn’t. I did spend a lot of time alone but was perfectly content to get on with my strange projects. And I never felt there was something that needed understanding. Maybe I was just blessed with the right kind of parents but my diary was full of cringe-inducing entries in which I described how happy I was and how perfect the world was. I miss being that person. It wasn’t until I was 25 when a whole zoo moved into my head.
It’s an elliptical novel which, while going back in time, circles closer and closer to the original incident that set the whole thing in motion, the incident in which Sean, the narrator, lost his face (literally). His new condition of looking like a one person freak show has him practically house-bound, so he invents other worlds and sets his mail-subscription role playing games there. Sean is not the sort of guy who was very popular before. When his mother worries he would be lonely after he leaves the hospital, he says: “I was going to be lonely anyway.”
The whole thing is about choices, like in Trace Italian, Sean’s game. You ‘choose your own adventure’. But the choice is an illusion. You take all these turns, but you can never really lose, and you can never really win – that’s the way the whole thing is designed, to keep you playing. The most daring think you can do is to opt out and leave the game altogether, like Chris, the guy who quit on his own terms. Most of the time we don’t know why we do the things we do, the choices we make follow some unexplained impulses and we struggle to provide a coherent explanation to back up our decision making. Sometimes we decide the best thing to do would be to dig a hole and stay in it, and when we realise it was a mistake it’s too late and we’re too weak to crawl out. This happened in this book too. We don’t know why we do what we do at the time, let alone later. Our old selves are a mystery to us. We keep the memories but the hero of those memories is a stranger to us.
The phrase 'Wolf in White Van' comes from the supposed subliminal messages hidden in rock and metal songs. You know, if you play them backward, Satan will speak to you. This is also what this novel does with its back to front structure. So what is the hidden message here? Is there any? Or am I just hearing things because I decided I would hear them? Maybe the supposed message is just accidental or maybe it can be only understood by a chosen few. The narrator asks why the devil can’t speak clearly, why he hides and obscures his message, which seems rather counter-productive from the marketing point of view. Similar complaints were voiced by some reviewers who just wanted the book to speak to them clearly and explain everything in capital letters. Ha ha. That’s not how the devil talks. Or John Darnielle.
I would’ve probably given this book five stars if I was one of those sad, misunderstood teenagers. But I wasn’t. I did spend a lot of time alone but was perfectly content to get on with my strange projects. And I never felt there was something that needed understanding. Maybe I was just blessed with the right kind of parents but my diary was full of cringe-inducing entries in which I described how happy I was and how perfect the world was. I miss being that person. It wasn’t until I was 25 when a whole zoo moved into my head.
mysterious
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
Who wouldn't want to rise above the obstacles in his pathways? Who wouldn't want to go down in flames? And for those of us who can't or won't rise above, who doesn't at least want to hear stories about how it might be possible for some triumph to eventually happen, given enough luck?
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this. I really did. Darnielle's voice comes ringing through clearly and some of the lines in this story are easily worthy of song lyrics. (Duh.) The central character and the tragedies that befall him and those who find themselves in his orbit are portrayed senstively. The humanity in this story is overwhelming.
This is not a spoiler, but, on a personal note, there is an item, I'll call it a totem, that appears in the last section of the story that really kind of floored me. It connected with me in ways that I wasn't expecting. If you've had a similar upbringing, you'll know exactly what I mean.
I couldn't see my way clear to giving this a 5/5 because the ending of the story felt like it was trying to force me to understand something that I couldn't. The foreshadowing with C. Haines (I think that was his name?) was the only reason I felt like I got it. Maybe, I didn't.
This is not a spoiler, but, on a personal note, there is an item, I'll call it a totem, that appears in the last section of the story that really kind of floored me. It connected with me in ways that I wasn't expecting. If you've had a similar upbringing, you'll know exactly what I mean.
I couldn't see my way clear to giving this a 5/5 because the ending of the story felt like it was trying to force me to understand something that I couldn't. The foreshadowing with C. Haines (I think that was his name?) was the only reason I felt like I got it. Maybe, I didn't.
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced