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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
I received this book for free through first reads. At first I was very intrigued. I was curious about the strange little town and how the investigation would proceed. The plot got slow at a few spots but it would pick back up. I was waiting for a twist to explain everything but it never came. The ending was a let down.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Short read and was hard to follow. Didn't understand where the story was going. More character focused rather than plot based. Ending open for interpretation which isn't my favorite.
Review based on ARC.
Yup. I really liked this one. So I started reading it, and then kept reading it, and kept reading it, until I was about a third of the way through and realized i was starving. So we went to go eat.
Then I went home and kept reading it.
And here's where it gets trippy. Admittedly, I was exhausted... just... so .... tired. But, see, I kept reading. And I started questioning reality, and my existence, and WHY is that light so bright... and who's keeping my husband away from me? AM I real? What's happening?...
and, normally, I'm not that kind of girl... ;)
Then I was interrupted and was not able to finish until the following evening. Overall, I was very pleased with the book.
And, gosh, what's it about. It is almost an everyman type of story... the characters are identified by their duties. And the Investigator is sent to Investigate an unusual circumstance with the Enterprise. There are, to say the least, obstacles in his efforts to uncover the truth he was sent to investigate. I think I can safely say, just read it. I hate spoilers, especially any hints regarding this kind of book.
But I will say, there are the "surreal" aspects that other mention; it's just that it's more than that. It's an allegory and a warning, and a tale to which many of us can relate. Plus it's creative and thoughtful.
Interestingly, my break in reading the novel occurs around the same time as the Investigator's.... ah, discovery of sorts. The tone seemed to shift. It had a satisfying end. But it just wasn't perfect.
But I Definitely recommend the book.
Definitely.
(four and a half stars)
Yup. I really liked this one. So I started reading it, and then kept reading it, and kept reading it, until I was about a third of the way through and realized i was starving. So we went to go eat.
Then I went home and kept reading it.
And here's where it gets trippy. Admittedly, I was exhausted... just... so .... tired. But, see, I kept reading. And I started questioning reality, and my existence, and WHY is that light so bright... and who's keeping my husband away from me? AM I real? What's happening?...
and, normally, I'm not that kind of girl... ;)
Then I was interrupted and was not able to finish until the following evening. Overall, I was very pleased with the book.
And, gosh, what's it about. It is almost an everyman type of story... the characters are identified by their duties. And the Investigator is sent to Investigate an unusual circumstance with the Enterprise. There are, to say the least, obstacles in his efforts to uncover the truth he was sent to investigate. I think I can safely say, just read it. I hate spoilers, especially any hints regarding this kind of book.
But I will say, there are the "surreal" aspects that other mention; it's just that it's more than that. It's an allegory and a warning, and a tale to which many of us can relate. Plus it's creative and thoughtful.
Interestingly, my break in reading the novel occurs around the same time as the Investigator's.... ah, discovery of sorts. The tone seemed to shift. It had a satisfying end. But it just wasn't perfect.
But I Definitely recommend the book.
Definitely.
(four and a half stars)
Books don't always need payoffs, but if you're going to set up a lot of weird stuff going on, you had best have a good reason for it and give some satisfactory reveals to make my investment worthwhile. The Investigation is sort of the prototypical modern "weird" without being quite as good as your Barron or VanderMeer as it forgets how to finish in favor of what ends up being a really fascinating start.
The story follows The Investigator, who has to do an Investigation into some suicides at The Enterprise. Along the way, he runs afoul of The Policeman, ends up talking with the Psychiatrist, is mistaken for a Tourist, and so on.
You get the idea.
The book's successes are in setting up this really confusing, really interesting setting and sequence of events. As we go further down the proverbial rabbit hole, we get both more information and less information. The problem is really at the end, where the resolution feels kind of thrown together. In a way, many resolutions in life are like that, but in fiction? Especially sort-of experimental fiction? Not so much.
Try it if you're in for a challenge, but know that it's going to get a little weird and that it might not be quite what you want it to be in the end.
The story follows The Investigator, who has to do an Investigation into some suicides at The Enterprise. Along the way, he runs afoul of The Policeman, ends up talking with the Psychiatrist, is mistaken for a Tourist, and so on.
You get the idea.
The book's successes are in setting up this really confusing, really interesting setting and sequence of events. As we go further down the proverbial rabbit hole, we get both more information and less information. The problem is really at the end, where the resolution feels kind of thrown together. In a way, many resolutions in life are like that, but in fiction? Especially sort-of experimental fiction? Not so much.
Try it if you're in for a challenge, but know that it's going to get a little weird and that it might not be quite what you want it to be in the end.
It was good until 3/4 of the way through and then after he ran into a brick wall it just turned awful. I didn’t need a god scene…
challenging
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Anyone who reads this should be prepared that it’s a stark metaphor for Existentialism. The individual is ignored, no names are given (just capitalized functions like The Investigator, The Guide, The Policeman, etc.), and the purpose of existence is questioned. I never liked existential books like The Stranger. This idea that there is no point to existence since you have no control and only a matter of time before death seems to me a depressing and possibly destructive way to go through life. It doesn’t really excuse one for murdering people for no reason (such as in The Stranger). However, The Investigator takes that story in reverse. Instead of the cold man realizing his existence is futile, you have a man determined with a purpose in a cold unfeeling world. The story is quite absurd, going from the hellish concepts in The Third Policeman, Kafka’s The Trial, along with some metafictional concepts.
A hapless Investigator is sent out to the Enterprise to find the cause of an unusually high rate of suicides. He arrives in an unfriendly environment. As soon as he steps off the train, people avoid him, Waiters, Guards, and Clerks treat him so severely he wonders what could possibly be going on. He is constantly assaulted, bewildered, and too tired to focus on anything except his investigation, which seems to be going nowhere. Will he prevail in this harsh and confusing world?
The references are very obvious and the author has peppered reflections on life, the cruelty of men to each other as well as the earth, into the work. It’s a simpler stripped down novel making its points obvious. It is staring you in the face and you can’t look away. It’s a fun experimental novel with a good message (let’s try to be kinder, be more observant), but the metafictional ending seems more lazy than clever.
A hapless Investigator is sent out to the Enterprise to find the cause of an unusually high rate of suicides. He arrives in an unfriendly environment. As soon as he steps off the train, people avoid him, Waiters, Guards, and Clerks treat him so severely he wonders what could possibly be going on. He is constantly assaulted, bewildered, and too tired to focus on anything except his investigation, which seems to be going nowhere. Will he prevail in this harsh and confusing world?
The references are very obvious and the author has peppered reflections on life, the cruelty of men to each other as well as the earth, into the work. It’s a simpler stripped down novel making its points obvious. It is staring you in the face and you can’t look away. It’s a fun experimental novel with a good message (let’s try to be kinder, be more observant), but the metafictional ending seems more lazy than clever.
I have been looking to try something by Philippe Claudel for a while so I was happy to pick this up in the Waterstones sale with a Christmas giftcard.
Translated from French, this is one of the oddest books I've read in a long time but a quick page-turner to kick start my 2019 reads. I can completely understand why this has very mixed reviews because the writing did feel a little overwritten at times and the plot itself was just strange. The characters were unfathomable and the whole thing very confusing. However, I actually quite enjoyed the reading experience. I went into the book completely blind and was surprised by the twists and turns that the story took.
This book is bizarre and if you don't like not knowing what's going on, this won't be your cup of tea but I thought that it was strange enough to keep me interested throughout. It had the atmosphere of a decent science-fiction style dystopian such as Nineteen Eighty Four but unfortunately the execution and pay-off was lacking.
Translated from French, this is one of the oddest books I've read in a long time but a quick page-turner to kick start my 2019 reads. I can completely understand why this has very mixed reviews because the writing did feel a little overwritten at times and the plot itself was just strange. The characters were unfathomable and the whole thing very confusing. However, I actually quite enjoyed the reading experience. I went into the book completely blind and was surprised by the twists and turns that the story took.
This book is bizarre and if you don't like not knowing what's going on, this won't be your cup of tea but I thought that it was strange enough to keep me interested throughout. It had the atmosphere of a decent science-fiction style dystopian such as Nineteen Eighty Four but unfortunately the execution and pay-off was lacking.
Originally published on Unravellations.
I find myself at a loss of what to say about The Investigation.
At first it was like an Alice-in-Wonderland-esque tumble down a rabbit hole into infinite loops of absurd nonsense, but then in the second half, it takes a grimmer turn and tone and by the end of the book, you're really left questioning what was the point of it all. Or was that the point?
A lot of online comments mentioned how The Investigation was Kafka-esque. I'm going to admit here that I've never read Kafka (shame on me) so I can't concur or rebutt any of these statements. What it did remind me a little of was Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, except not as absurdist, and it didn't quite leave me with a feeling of liberating self-doubt as Beckett's play did.
The Investigation starts off only mildly absurd. The Investigator, as he is known, arrives at an unnamed town where he is supposed to find his way to the Enterprise to investigate a series of suicides amongst its employees. Everything in the book is named that way - the Waiter, the Server, the Guard, the Guide. Things turn topsy-turvy for the Investigator as nothing seems to happen according to plan. He gets a creepy feeling of being watched. It raised a lot of questions about personal identity in today's world, are we defined by our functions in society, have we all lost our own individuality in capitalism, so on and so forth. Side note: the Enterprise always reminded me of Google for some reason.
Things get from crazy to batshit insane. Allegories either become too convoluted or simply collapsed under themselves. I was left feeling as lost as the Investigator, all my previous predictions for the ending of the book fell through. If anything, this book had the ability to keep me reading and reading, fuelled simply by the curiosity of finding out what exactly is going on. I finished the book within 24 hours, but the ending fell a little flat for me. I'm not even sure if the author intended to clear anything up by the end. I know explanations are sometimes not necessary for complex works like these, they're deliberately left open-ended in order to facilitate thought and discussion, but when I look back and can't seem to connect any dots, or to find out any sort of message behind it all, I begin to question the efficacy of the ending. Maybe it's me?!
I find myself at a loss of what to say about The Investigation.
At first it was like an Alice-in-Wonderland-esque tumble down a rabbit hole into infinite loops of absurd nonsense, but then in the second half, it takes a grimmer turn and tone and by the end of the book, you're really left questioning what was the point of it all. Or was that the point?
A lot of online comments mentioned how The Investigation was Kafka-esque. I'm going to admit here that I've never read Kafka (shame on me) so I can't concur or rebutt any of these statements. What it did remind me a little of was Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, except not as absurdist, and it didn't quite leave me with a feeling of liberating self-doubt as Beckett's play did.
The Investigation starts off only mildly absurd. The Investigator, as he is known, arrives at an unnamed town where he is supposed to find his way to the Enterprise to investigate a series of suicides amongst its employees. Everything in the book is named that way - the Waiter, the Server, the Guard, the Guide. Things turn topsy-turvy for the Investigator as nothing seems to happen according to plan. He gets a creepy feeling of being watched. It raised a lot of questions about personal identity in today's world, are we defined by our functions in society, have we all lost our own individuality in capitalism, so on and so forth. Side note: the Enterprise always reminded me of Google for some reason.
Things get from crazy to batshit insane. Allegories either become too convoluted or simply collapsed under themselves. I was left feeling as lost as the Investigator, all my previous predictions for the ending of the book fell through. If anything, this book had the ability to keep me reading and reading, fuelled simply by the curiosity of finding out what exactly is going on. I finished the book within 24 hours, but the ending fell a little flat for me. I'm not even sure if the author intended to clear anything up by the end. I know explanations are sometimes not necessary for complex works like these, they're deliberately left open-ended in order to facilitate thought and discussion, but when I look back and can't seem to connect any dots, or to find out any sort of message behind it all, I begin to question the efficacy of the ending. Maybe it's me?!