Scale

A short story published in full as a Penguin 60. Originally taken from a short story collection called Grey Area.

Not too sure what to make of this one. It was clever in its use of multiple themes related to ‘scale', but somehow suffered from being pushed into those multiple themes. That doesn't really make sense when I read it back, but it still says what I mean...

A drug addicted divorcee living next door to a model village (ie a scale model of a village), who has ‘lost his sense of scale'. The story in several chapters explains the difficulties of his life: Drug induced hallucinations, current situations and future visions all mixed together.

Some plot lines spoiled in the spoiler below!
As well as distance perceptions, he also has a limescale problem in his kettle and his bathroom scales are stolen. There is also a description of the scaly sides of the Lizard peninsula, and the frill necked lizard on the cover - but he doesn't mention the scales on this! Other than scale-related issues, there is a whole lot of other loosely connected storylines woven through this.

As I say, not really sure about this book. I don't usually mind a bit of mind-bending-hallucinatory-drug-narrative, and the mildly graphic drug taking in the book is not an issue. I guess I just didn't take this story well...