Review S4: The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

          Auster tends to tell more than show, but his narrative is incredible—it is captivating, enticing, and effective. The entire book seemed to be a mystery in and of itself—each sentence was written in a way that made me believe that just maybe it was important to the story, maybe I should remember it and try to fit it in the the puzzle. This, and the interesting material, kept me engaged throughout the entire collection. There was minor crossover between the stories, with more solid thematic crossover between them—at times I found myself wondering if there was not more crossover that I hadn't connected. The three novellas all have references to things that truly happened, facts. I found myself pausing and putting the book down, when these interesting facts came up, to check to see if what was said in the book held any truth. Each time I checked, I was shown that the facts were true and the stories as interesting as they were portrayed in the book.

City Of Glass

          At times the story dives into the thoughts of the protagonist, or into the text of the book he is reading, and I would become absorbed in this secondary story, momentarily forgetting the larger story at play. While some may feel that this technique distracts from the story, Auster manages to do this in a way that, I feel, strengthens the story as a whole. This story may be disappointing for those who prefer a typical plot structure—the story builds up and the reader is given hints about what might be coming, but then the main story is pulled out from under the reader and the story just seems to flatten out. Then, the story ends without any real resolution, leaving the reader with many questions. One thing that I found to be really interesting and effective was that there is a story that sits on the surface, but there are many stories beneath that. Similarly, there are many things you could take from the reading, whether they are intentionally there or not. These elements are what, to me, brings the story to the level of exceptional.

3^rd person.

Ghost

         Never before has stagnancy been so entertaining and engaging. As a reader I felt, like the protagonist, stuck in a position—feeling trapped even though nothing has changed, waiting desperately for a change and for some momentous something. I was carried along with the story, and easily identified with the protagonist because the story caused me to feel so much of what he was feeling. Much of the protagonist's situation is the his own doing, which makes him a little less sympathetic, but a lot more interesting, in my opinion. He seems stubborn to a fault and relatively one dimensional, as he seems to have not before spent time with himself alone nor does he really seem to have many hobbies or interests that might be able to sustain him through the story. While the protagonist seemed somewhat one dimensional, I felt as though it worked in the story because the character was one dimensional in a way that I feel like many real people are—where they haven't spent enough time with themselves to know who they are and when they are forced to be alone without anyone telling them what to do, they are at a loss. Overall, for me, the author's ability to draw a reader in makes up for the character's downfalls.

3^rd person

The Locked Room

          This story begins in a way that makes it seem like it is the most like an actual mystery, or at least closer to what a person would normally recognize as a mystery. At some point the mystery seems to be solved, or maybe just forgotten and ignored; however, when everything seems settled, it then jumps up again with an answer, as well as more questions, and these things then command the reader's attention. There are themes of obsession and desperation. This last story gives a new way of looking at the story itself, as well as each story before it. With this last story, the book becomes whole and vibrant.

1^st person.

Trigger Warning: violent sexual thoughts and interaction. (Please email me if you would like more information.)

You might like this book if you like: Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Kurt Vonnegut

Review S3: The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

         Overall, I really liked The Hearing Trumpet, though there were a few things that are negatives for me. The Hearing Trumpet starts out with a little too much back story—and what turns out to be pretty unnecessary back story. It seems to be intended to set up the rest of the story, however, because of my lack of emotional tie to the protagonist, the beginning of the book, the spillage of information, was mostly just confusing. I ended up having to flip back to the first part of the book throughout my reading in order to seek out more information about things referenced later on in the book. It would have been nicer for the first part of the book to be interwoven with the rest of the book, so you could learn more as time went on, a little at a time.

         All that being said, the story gets more and more surreal, absurd, and impossible (and in my opinion, much better and stronger) as time goes on. While the story started out a little too normal for me, the way in which Carrington ramps up the strangeness made the beginning work for me, though I still would have preferred less of an information dump at the beginning. The impossibilities are of a somewhat ridiculous and bizarre nature, and the events that take place are born from a wild imagination—truly reminiscent of a dream.

         Two things that might be negative to some, though were positive to me, are the use of a sub-story and the ambiguous ending. At one point the story shifts and you begin reading a secondary story—one that the main character is reading—which continues for about 1/6 of the book. This dragged for me a bit for the first couple pages, but then picked up quite a bit and became extremely interesting. After that I was as engaged in this sub-book as I was in the main book. This sub-story was integrated in with the rest of the story, as well, though at the time you are reading it, it seems at least somewhat unrelated. The end of the story leaves many things without proper conclusions. I tend to like unclear endings, and I feel as though it was done in a way, in this story, that added to, rather than detracted from, the story as a whole.

         One thing that I would have liked to see more of is the integration of things that the author set up in earlier parts of the book, in the later parts of the book. This happens at times and the author does it masterfully, but a lot of things seem created and then forgotten when they could have been used wonderfully throughout the book.

         All in all, it is an easy and short read, and an entertaining one, as well. I would recommend it to people as such.

You might like this book if you liked: Alice in Wonderland, Jane Bowles

Review S2: Little Kingdoms by Steven Millhauser

All of the stories in this collection of three novellas revolve, in some way, around a relationship in turmoil and there is also obliviousness (be it self-imposed or not). But the three novellas have more differences than they do similarities. The styles in which the author chooses to tell these stories shows his wide range of ability. What is most unique about the second and third story is the styles in which they are written and the forms they take. They are certainly experimental structures. Steven Millhauser is a strong writer, though the second and third story lacked in plot and well-developed characters, resting a bit too much on the experimental structures of the stories themselves. All three stories seem to include an overlapping of imagination and reality.

The Little Kingdom of J. Franklin Payne

There was too much narrative and back story at the beginning—the back story seemed largely unnecessary and reading that part seemed dragged out. It seemed to me that the back story could have been removed entirely, or at least condensed. Later, the narrative is strong and the story begins to come to life. A glimpse near the beginning of the story of the world this man sometimes lived in, or rather the world he saw in the place of his mundane world kept me interested through the more dragging parts of the story. There were a few times when I did not feel that Millhausers narrative was effective. I often like large chunks of telling, and often like useless details, but in the useless details, Millhauser seems to also lose his touch for effective narrative. That being said, once the story picked up, I fell further and further into this world, and didn't want to put the book down (unlike previously, where I had to keep re-focusing on the story because my mind would wander.) There are many long complex sentences that occasionally required re-reading and long daunting paragraphs that could overwhelm. All in all, the negative aspects of this story are minor and the strength of the story and the writing are well worth the read.

The Princess, the Dwarf and the Dungeon

This story is a series of short sections that tell of the different parts of the castle and kingdom, and through these sections, a story is told—both of the town and the people within, and of a tale they tell over and over again of the prince and a princess. Many different versions of the fairy tale are brought up throughout the story, which led me to look more closely at the relationship between the fairy tale being told and the descriptions of the town. The sections are short and easily digested. Much of it is told bluntly as if someone relating possible facts of a story, rather than attempting to hold you in the clutches of the story. However, through these small portions, the language and choice of details paints a clear picture and I found myself very curious as to what was going to happen next. There is not a typical story arch, though there is a story arch in the fairy tale. Overall, it is a dark tale, woven well.

The Paintings

This story consists of descriptions of paintings, the people they portray, and the artist. The sections of description vary in length, but I found all of a length that was easy to digest. Together they tell a story of the artists life. The descriptions are a little frustrating in their inconsistency. Some tell a lot about the painter, some about the subject of the painting, some a history of the painting itself, and others what the painting looks like. Some serve more than one of these purposes, but often not in the same order, or in the same manner, as other passages. It is as though the descriptions are a compilation of gallery descriptions, descriptions in a book of paintings, descriptions from a biography, Wikipedia articles, and just descriptions as though someone was just telling a friend what something looked like. There were times that the “obsessed historian” who seemed to be giving the descriptions would slip and reveal conjecture as though it was fact, or tell more about the relationships between the individuals than would likely be known. Despite this, all of the descriptions were effective in their purpose. The inconsistency made it hard for me, at the beginning of the story, to pick the story out of the descriptions. This isn't to say it's poorly done, but simply that it did not work very well for me. I was able to take, from the piece, enough of a story to be satisfied and interested, but with a feeling that there was more out of my reach. By the end of reading, I was fully engrossed in the story. I feel, for myself, it could have been more engaging, but it was certainly effective and powerful and worth reading.

Trigger warning: description of a visual of someone being assaulted. Please email me for more information.

You might like this book if you like: Paul Auster, Italo Calvino, Vladmir Nabokov, Mark Helprin

Review S1: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

          From the beginning of The Unconsoled, it is clear that the story is unique, though Ishiguro manages to ease the reader into the absurdity. The book is extremely surreal, often times nightmarish (the kind of anxiety nightmare where you realize you're late to school and forgot you have a math test, and when you get to class, just barely on time, you look at the paper and you don't understand a thing on it). However, in some way, things seem to work out relatively well, or at least have little negative consequence when they don't. Despite the resulting too familiar anxiety, the story manages to be quite humorous at times. Ryder, the protagonist, seems to move through the book in a stream-of-thought manner, going from one situation to the next without pause. Many times I found myself cheering on Ryder as I read, hoping he would remember different obligations, so as to not disappoint certain characters. There were also times when I was dragged away with the turn of events, forgetting what led to the situation Ryder was in at the time until he remembered what he previously agreed to do.

          Many people in the story, if not everyone, seems to be at least a little strange. However, despite their quirkiness, many of the characters seem almost indistinguishable at times in terms of their neediness and tendency to talk endlessly, which can make them seem pathetic at times. They often speak as though Ryder understands what they are talking about, and as he very rarely seeks clarification, we rarely get it. At times, Ryder seems to have a link into the minds of other characters, as he seems to know too much of what they are thinking at times. Perhaps he can see into the minds of others who, in some way, represent himself throughout his life, but perhaps not.

          This book has received many negative reviews, often claiming that the book is frustrating. While I do not agree with the assessment, there are certain aspects of the book I could see might be frustrating for some. Time and place are very warped and inconsistent throughout the story, often wandering into the impossible. The protagonist also seems to suffer from some sort of memory loss and is, throughout the story, remembering various important things that seem unlikely for one to forget. At times I even wondered if there might be a conspiracy at play. There were a few places where run-on sentences caused me to re-read a sentence several times, but overall they didn't affect the flow much.

          Overall, this is the best book I have read this year. I highly recommend it.

You might be interested in this book if you like: Proust, Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, and James Joyce