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A review by adrian_bubie
The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z. Danielewski
3.0
I picked this up after finishing House of Leaves last year, looking for something similarly creepy, complex and weird. The Familiar has at least some of the third - but not in abundance, or at least, not in a way that makes you want to read further. The pace of this book is very slow; exacerbated I think by the myriad of characters who, if the story had focused on one in particular, could have created an interesting narrative, but instead jumps back and forth at seemingly arbitrary points to create a disconnected mess.
The use of text styles and font manipulation, which was used to great effectiveness in Danielewski's other work, also disappointed me. There WERE interesting and meaningful uses on occasion, adding emphasis or helping to literally "paint a picture with words", but otherwise it did not add anything to the story and felt almost forced. I would have much rather seen it used more infrequently to help highlight the important parts of the book than see it used on almost every page until it becomes almost mundane.
The book is not all bad though, and to give it some credit, it is the 1st of 27 volumes, so much of the groundwork for the full 'meat' of the story has to be laid out here. And setting up the characters is not always the most interesting thing (though in this case, some characters like the Detective Ozman and Xanther's familiy were a pleasure to learn about). Though there is no unifying thread yet, all the individual pieces have some driving force that keep it from feeling like a waiting game of "when is X going to meet Y?". Especially near the end, there are some strange and creepy revelations that will reward those who see this book to its conclusion -- Let's just hope the second volume can speed up the action.
Final thoughts: would not re-read or recommend to someone unless they have read Danielewski before; will try out the second volume, though.
The use of text styles and font manipulation, which was used to great effectiveness in Danielewski's other work, also disappointed me. There WERE interesting and meaningful uses on occasion, adding emphasis or helping to literally "paint a picture with words", but otherwise it did not add anything to the story and felt almost forced. I would have much rather seen it used more infrequently to help highlight the important parts of the book than see it used on almost every page until it becomes almost mundane.
The book is not all bad though, and to give it some credit, it is the 1st of 27 volumes, so much of the groundwork for the full 'meat' of the story has to be laid out here. And setting up the characters is not always the most interesting thing (though in this case, some characters like the Detective Ozman and Xanther's familiy were a pleasure to learn about). Though there is no unifying thread yet, all the individual pieces have some driving force that keep it from feeling like a waiting game of "when is X going to meet Y?". Especially near the end, there are some strange and creepy revelations that will reward those who see this book to its conclusion -- Let's just hope the second volume can speed up the action.
Final thoughts: would not re-read or recommend to someone unless they have read Danielewski before; will try out the second volume, though.