As a worshipper of Joy Williams’s novels and her more traditional short stories I was expecting to love it, but no. Need I go on? Probably not but herAs a worshipper of Joy Williams’s novels and her more traditional short stories I was expecting to love it, but no. Need I go on? Probably not but here I go. This book made me feel stupid. Which is a very difficult thing to do because I hold my intellect in high regard, I mean, stupidly high regard, like if some asked me to describe myself in 5 words or less I’d probably start with ‘smart.’ Or maybe I’d be feeling a little humble at the moment and I’d say it as the 4th word but in my soul it’s fundamental. Ok once I re-established my high regard for my brain and read on then the book just felt like sloppy seconds, bits of thought and leftover trash that Joy Williams found on her hard drive. I worshipped you! How can this book be? Ok I will probably erase this in a few minutes I am so ashamed by both my lack of humility before my literary god as well as my inability to see the greatness in this book....more
I enjoyed this first novel of Dorothy B. Hughes in a "Man Who was Thursday" sort of way, and not a "Postman Always Rings Twice" sort of way. Meaning tI enjoyed this first novel of Dorothy B. Hughes in a "Man Who was Thursday" sort of way, and not a "Postman Always Rings Twice" sort of way. Meaning that it was entertaining as long as I kept it on the level of absurd shenanigans instead of thinking of it as noir, a category Hughes is lumped into and that might be more apt for her other novels. The people and scenes and images in my head that this novel evoked moved and acted like John Sayles as a cop in "Brother From Another Planet." As in, not at all realistically, and yet, fascinatingly....more
One of those too-rare books that manages to be absolutely absurd and deeply moving at the same time. I loved it, not only for its story, or its wild lOne of those too-rare books that manages to be absolutely absurd and deeply moving at the same time. I loved it, not only for its story, or its wild leaps of imagination, but also for the way it leaves it up to you what level in the story you choose to suspend your disbelief. I realized by the end that I am absolutely in love with the sort of book that gives you this choice, to decide for yourself what is ‘really real in the real world’ (is the geography accurate to Tokyo?) or ‘fictionally real’ (is the threat real or a prank?) or ‘real to the character, who is sincere but delusional’ (do they really believe what they’re telling one another? Are all of them lying? Some of them?) and to top it off there is a frame story where you need to decide if the narrator himself is a wiseacre, trying to scare some random children with his oddly imagined tale…yeah. If you pick this up I recommend going along for the ride and letting the story wash over you without trying too hard to solve its narrative puzzle because the puzzle’s not really the point....more
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