Scan barcode
A review by jessicaxmaria
Version Control by Dexter Palmer
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
“The thing about memories wasn’t that many of them inevitably faded, but that repeated recall of the ones you remembered burnished them into shining, gorgeous lies.”
I’ve had this book on my radar since it was in the Tournament of Books seven years ago, but I never read it. Then I read Palmer’s novel Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen for a later year of the Tournament of Books and I fell straight in love with Palmer’s writing. His sentences and *ideas* are wonderful and mesmerizing. There’s a line from Mary Toft that runs in my mind still, four years after reading it (“history is an act of continuous collective imagining” !!!). This sentence from Version Control and the several others I underlined will stay with me, too. When do our memories become these gorgeous lies? In the book this is about a specific situation, but I find it applicable in every day nostalgia all the time.
Anyway, I let my copy of Version Control languish on my unread shelf too long, but sometimes the book must hit at the exact right moment. And this novel about time travel, but also about humanity and science and existence—hit at the right moment. There’s a lot explored within the pages, but there’s so much trust as well. Trust in the reader, varying trust between characters, and necessary trust in the universe. I’m not explaining it quite right! I promise you’ll understand when you read it. It’s got that same blend of literature and science that people love Emily St John Mandel for 😌
Highly recommend for a most interesting (😉) journey.
I’ve had this book on my radar since it was in the Tournament of Books seven years ago, but I never read it. Then I read Palmer’s novel Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen for a later year of the Tournament of Books and I fell straight in love with Palmer’s writing. His sentences and *ideas* are wonderful and mesmerizing. There’s a line from Mary Toft that runs in my mind still, four years after reading it (“history is an act of continuous collective imagining” !!!). This sentence from Version Control and the several others I underlined will stay with me, too. When do our memories become these gorgeous lies? In the book this is about a specific situation, but I find it applicable in every day nostalgia all the time.
Anyway, I let my copy of Version Control languish on my unread shelf too long, but sometimes the book must hit at the exact right moment. And this novel about time travel, but also about humanity and science and existence—hit at the right moment. There’s a lot explored within the pages, but there’s so much trust as well. Trust in the reader, varying trust between characters, and necessary trust in the universe. I’m not explaining it quite right! I promise you’ll understand when you read it. It’s got that same blend of literature and science that people love Emily St John Mandel for 😌
Highly recommend for a most interesting (😉) journey.