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41 Reads
This book consumed me for a bit, but after finishing it I feel refreshed and almost as if an ancient weight I didn't know I carried has been lifted off my chest.
- As for most people, this is my introduction to Danielewski. His style of writing has such unique cadence to me which I cannot unsee in other works now, and after reading so many pages of it it's getting a bit annoying, sadly.
- I for one loved the format and the unique way of characterization that can be expressed through it, I loved the unreliable editor upon unreliable commentator upon unreliable transcript upon unreliable narrator. It made me consider the outside influences on characters beyond what was said in the text. A good example of this is Johnny Truant constantly writing "should of", but correcting many grammatical mistakes in Zampanòs text and also being able to understand and riff on most of Zampanòs references to greek mythology, even though from what we know about his life he's really no intellectual – until we get to the Pelican poems and Whalestoe letters at the very end of the book.
- A common complaint I see in reviews is about how the women are represented, but I like to believe that this is a conscious choice made by the author to tell us more about the character that describes the women. The only time that I agree with the criticism is when it is targeted at the portrayal of P. and what she says (how she portrays herself) in the Whalestoe letters specifically, however even this instance could be explained by obvious reasons.
- The odd page layout can get tiresome after a bit, but some nice visual effects come out of it combined with the thinness of the paper.
I'm chopping the last star in half only because there's still this an itch that I cannot scratch. There's something about this book I can't put my finger on, and I'm mad about that.
This book consumed me for a bit, but after finishing it I feel refreshed and almost as if an ancient weight I didn't know I carried has been lifted off my chest.
- As for most people, this is my introduction to Danielewski. His style of writing has such unique cadence to me which I cannot unsee in other works now, and after reading so many pages of it it's getting a bit annoying, sadly.
- I for one loved the format and the unique way of characterization that can be expressed through it, I loved the unreliable editor upon unreliable commentator upon unreliable transcript upon unreliable narrator. It made me consider the outside influences on characters beyond what was said in the text. A good example of this is Johnny Truant constantly writing "should of", but correcting many grammatical mistakes in Zampanòs text and also being able to understand and riff on most of Zampanòs references to greek mythology, even though from what we know about his life he's really no intellectual – until we get to the Pelican poems and Whalestoe letters at the very end of the book.
- A common complaint I see in reviews is about how the women are represented, but I like to believe that this is a conscious choice made by the author to tell us more about the character that describes the women. The only time that I agree with the criticism is when it is targeted at the portrayal of P. and what she says (how she portrays herself) in the Whalestoe letters specifically, however even this instance could be explained by obvious reasons.
- The odd page layout can get tiresome after a bit, but some nice visual effects come out of it combined with the thinness of the paper.
I'm chopping the last star in half only because there's still this an itch that I cannot scratch. There's something about this book I can't put my finger on, and I'm mad about that.