Every once in a while I run across a pretty weird book. That isn’t necessarily good or bad – I like variation in my reading – and this book had some good weird and some bad weird.
It is certainly an ambitious work. It tells several stories in layers, written in a mocking academic style, and it is a pretty big reading project to get through it. A lot of the content is meant as an effect to show some of the characters’ mental health state at the time, so it isn’t necessary (or advisable) to follow every footnote and reference (some of which are fake – again to show characters’ mental health state at the time).
For me the more interesting part of the book was the story within the story – the exploration of a spooky house full of empty spaces in the dark that change and expand and have the effect of driving people mad. There is allusion to the labyrinth and Minotaur, and large sections are dedicated to considering what this might mean.
In the end after about 20 hours of reading time I got through the book – I liked the creativity of the novel, and the spookiness of the house made it worth the read. But it can be a tough one to get through and it falls pretty far off the mainstream.
Next I am reading A Drink Before the War by Dennis LeHane.
