The Anomaly

THE ANOMALY BY HERVÈ LE TELLIER

It is important to note that this book takes many liberties with structure and prose style; there is no one unified protagonist, nor is there all that much substance plot-wise I fear. This book is predominantly characterized by its focus on philosophy and discussion as well as critique of many aspects of modern life and culture, especially religion. The most wondrous and fictional aprt of this book, except the duplicated plane and all its passengers, is the fact that a child predator in the army is rightfully sentenced.

While I do understand the point of the book and what it is going for, it was a read more frustrating than enjoyable. The first 150-200 pages were a nightmare and I only pushed onwards because I owed it to the kind and wonderful librarian who has not read the book, but recommended it to me because she heard good things about it and wanted me to enjoy it. Hopefully she will not be in the library when I return my borrowed copy because I have nary a compliment for this novel.

The writing style starts out a fun and new experience, but this book seems to be in love with itself and its words; after some time (roughly 50 pages), the prose lost its charm and started to feel annoying. Especially when the meta-commentary started getting peppered in. I was tempted to throw the book at a wall when it began referencing itself and the reader. Likewise, there were many tidbits here that felt rather pointless to me; as I got farther into the book, the less the scene with all the religious leaders felt relevant to the goings-on. It started to feel shoe-horned in just to ridicule religion and make some points about the human soul, which I didn't find particularly interesting or inspiring, in part because I heard all those talking points already in real-life debates that were a lot more captivating. The issue for me, with this novel, is that it discussed topics I have already explored in more depth and with more nuance through my online experience, watching other people's debates and asking questions on forums, as well as researching philosophy. As such, there was nothing novel, nothing to interest me. I didn't care for the characters, I didn't care for the topics discussed (mostly because they were so repetitive for me), and the story was less a plot and more a backdrop for philosophical meanderings.

That being said, I can see why people would like this book. I don't see why it would be life-changing, but that is my difficulty with empathy speaking. Philosophy does affect people greatly, and there is much within this book that invites the readers to consider philosophy-changing theories and hypotheses. However, for those who are well-versed in philosophy, or if they find themselves rather apathetic to the discussion of “are we real, are we not?”, this book has little to offer.

Still, Le Tellier did handle quite a lot of sensitive topics with good-hearted humor and with the seriousness they deserve. A gay Black man struggling with living and loving his homophobic culture, a young girl sexually abused by her father. Both issues are treated respectfully and without any gratuity, which I appreciate. However, while some of the characters are well-handled, I don't think they're interesting or well-executed, or memorable. By the time the plot really took off, I just wanted to finish this shit, and couldn't care less about the people I was reading about.

My overall impression is that the book is full of itself, it is not as novel as it seems to think itself to be, and I was bored until we hit the last third. This just was not the book for me, and I was not the book for the reader; this is, I think, mostly for the people who are worried, and who fear what the world means and what fate is, and I just am not that person.