Another book read following a review in Planet
I found this quiet a challenging book and I think that if I hadn't taken it on holiday with me I would have probably given up on it well before half way. However I am very glad to have carried on and overall I enjoyed reading it.
What was difficult about the book was working out exactly what you were reading, there seem to be an undercurrent of political comment and I spent a good deal of time trying to grasp what the big message of the book was. However about half way through I gave up on that and by letting go of that search and just allowing myself to wallow in the words I found the experience so much more enjoyable.
If you feel the need for a pigeon hole for the book that it fits best into the category of a collection of poems, as while the sections are connected and there are echos of theme from one to another the linkage is fairly loose. The writing has the quality of a dream and to quote the book "crossing sleep's border we would find ourselves in two places at once, because two places are what the god of sleep allows..." much of the book exists in two, three, four, or more places at once - and therein is the richness and the challenge.
As a bit of an aside to the main theme of the book I enjoyed the rant about Bill Bryson that occurs near the start of the book which centre on the contrast to another writer Kerouac "Whereas Kerouac didn't give a damn for his reader. If he had he might have been a better writer. But at least Kerouac has soul, even if that soul has shat its pants, is tormented, damned ... Meanwhile ... Bryson travels to Maine. He finds nothing of interest. So he tell us there is nothing of interest in Maine in prose that contains nothing of interest..."
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