What do you think?
Rate this book
Entanglement
A memory-impaired time traveller attempts to correct a tragic mistake he made in 1977 when, panicked, he abandoned his brother on a frozen lake in Baltimore. Decades later, in 2011, a novelist researching at the Centre for Time in Sydney becomes romantically involved with a philosopher from New Zealand. A writer at a lake retreat in New Zealand in 2019 obsesses over the disintegration of his marriage following another tragedy. Are they separate stories, or are they one? Is the time traveller actually travelling? Can the past be changed? As the answers to these questions slowly emerge, the lives become entangled in a tale of love, desperation and physics.
Unknown Binding
First published October 1, 2021
3 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 13, 2021
If you have ever watched the 2010 movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy then you may understand when I say that this is the novel equivalent of that film. It is a great film, but you are not always sure what is happening, where you are, or what is going on. On the positive side, at least this book doesn’t leave you with an enigmatic ending like the film.
Entanglement is written using three repeating sections throughout; Lake Lyndon Writers Retreat (in 2019), Sydney (in 2011) and sections called simply Time Traveller which are not dated. When you add the fact that we work backwards in time from the front of the book, you will begin to see where some of the confusion comes from.
All the chapters from the Lake Lyndon Writers Retreat begin with a writing exercise; ‘Write a passage in which one character waits anxiously for another to arrive’, ‘Write a he-said, she-said-argument’ or ‘Write a scene that involves two truths and a lie’. This is a unique way of guiding us into the detail of the story, and also a way of covering tracks to keep us from fully understanding what is happening to the main characters. For anyone who hates that the main character is a writer, this is also a great way of making him a bit more interesting.
Because the sections narrated by the time traveller are not dated, it takes a while to orient yourself as to where they slot into the story. The late emergence of the narrator’s name also helps to keep things opaque. Along the way he will engage with various scholars and physicists to talk about the nature of time travel and how exactly it might work. These pieces help to keep the curious engaged. There is a great explanation of how a changed event in the past can be overcome by multiple parallel story lines. Our narrator is trying to change the events in his past to avoid a terrible event in the present. To do so, he has to go right back to his own childhood. On the way he is given a writing exercise which says ‘Write a set of step-by-step instructions for completing an impossible task.’ This particular piece stands out form the rest of the novel which is composed of many long sentences. Here the short terse phrases reverberate with the difficulty of the task at hand:
Underlying the whole book are themes of time, memory and regret. The quality of the writing keeps all the strands alive and kicking. Here is a little example of what you can expect. One of the writing exercises calls for beginning a scene by describing an imaginary map of a real place:
If you thrive on something well written and different, this is probably exactly what you need! For me, it didn’t quite work.
Entanglement is written using three repeating sections throughout; Lake Lyndon Writers Retreat (in 2019), Sydney (in 2011) and sections called simply Time Traveller which are not dated. When you add the fact that we work backwards in time from the front of the book, you will begin to see where some of the confusion comes from.
All the chapters from the Lake Lyndon Writers Retreat begin with a writing exercise; ‘Write a passage in which one character waits anxiously for another to arrive’, ‘Write a he-said, she-said-argument’ or ‘Write a scene that involves two truths and a lie’. This is a unique way of guiding us into the detail of the story, and also a way of covering tracks to keep us from fully understanding what is happening to the main characters. For anyone who hates that the main character is a writer, this is also a great way of making him a bit more interesting.
Because the sections narrated by the time traveller are not dated, it takes a while to orient yourself as to where they slot into the story. The late emergence of the narrator’s name also helps to keep things opaque. Along the way he will engage with various scholars and physicists to talk about the nature of time travel and how exactly it might work. These pieces help to keep the curious engaged. There is a great explanation of how a changed event in the past can be overcome by multiple parallel story lines. Our narrator is trying to change the events in his past to avoid a terrible event in the present. To do so, he has to go right back to his own childhood. On the way he is given a writing exercise which says ‘Write a set of step-by-step instructions for completing an impossible task.’ This particular piece stands out form the rest of the novel which is composed of many long sentences. Here the short terse phrases reverberate with the difficulty of the task at hand:
Go to the hardware store. Pick out the paint. It need not be expensive. Do not linger over the choices because to do so would be to give too much to the process. The longer the time spent choosing a colour, the worse it will feel. The walls are currently yellow. This was meant to make the room feel warm and inviting. To sell the house, the room should be made impersonal, a blank slate. It is easiest to choose white. Off-white will do. Purchase a roller. Again, something inexpensive, as it will be necessary to throw it away when the process is complete because it will not be tolerable to come across it again in another context. Purchase a drop-cloth; otherwise use old sheets or tarps. It is important to clear the room. It is not the effort of moving the items from the room that makes it difficult. Each item is freighted not with mass but with gravity. Do not give in to this gravity. A wife will make a brief appearance but will be unable to get herself to help with this task, so it will be necessary to find assistance elsewhere. It is useful to call a friend. This friend will not want to do this task but will help anyway out of a sense of inescapable obligation given the circumstances. Thank the friend when he enters but mention nothing more. Work largely in silence.
Underlying the whole book are themes of time, memory and regret. The quality of the writing keeps all the strands alive and kicking. Here is a little example of what you can expect. One of the writing exercises calls for beginning a scene by describing an imaginary map of a real place:
Begin with spring, which is at the far corner of the map. Spring is the shape of a river, on which is placed a reed basket with a baby inside. It floats north by northwest, through summer and its tributaries then through autumn and finally winter, early winter, that’s where the map ends, in early winter, at a house on a street called Sycamore Lane – really it is, though there are in fact no sycamores, the landscape plans having been changed by the developer, the developer having changed from one company to another, the first having gone bankrupt due to certain exigencies in the economy and some unwise and illegal actions taken by the chief operating officer, so that though the names of the streets and many of the house models remained the same, the landscaping was sharply reduced to accommodate a rather different budget, swathes of imagined living things erased from the future.
If you thrive on something well written and different, this is probably exactly what you need! For me, it didn’t quite work.
March 22, 2022
Exquisite. Grief, the subjectivity of time, physics. I completely nerded out with this one.
December 4, 2021
Entanglement is a novel about time; the scientific concept of time, the human experience of time, the incomprehensibility of time, and the emotional and psychological ravages of time. It's a novel that doesn't feel fully-baked, full of heavy exposition and blunt metaphor, that doesn't know what to do with all the instruments at it's disposal. It explodes out the gate with mysteries for the reader to solve and emotional threads to pull on, but loses steam quickly as it circles the same ideas and recycles the same beats over and over again.
Entanglement's biggest mountain is it's characters. Not much happens in the novel; this is a book about relationships, both real and remembered, and is most interested in exploring the transcendental properties of love through time. But for a book that is so heavily invested in it's characters, they're woefully underdeveloped. The emotional core of Entanglement is the relationship between the narrator and Anise, the woman he meets in Sydney and eventually marries. But Anise only exists in relation to the narrator; her life beyond this romantic relationship is never explored. She flickers between being a too-good-to-be-true sexual and romantic trophy and a suffering wife, a two-dimensional 'insert-woman-here' in a story about four-dimensional relationships. It's an egregious oversight for any novel to so callously use a female character in such an openly objectifying way, even more so in a novel that hinges on the believably of their emotional connection to propel the entire story forward. Their child together is similarly under-served, existing as a projection of the narrators feelings towards her rather than as an independent person outright. Really every character in Entanglement exists only in orbit around the narrator - his perspective is the only important one, and everyone else is filtered through their relationship and utility to him. A charitable reader might be able to forgive this as a necessity of the structure and ultimate purpose of the text; but it's hard not to interpret the narrator as self-absorbed, narcissistic and emotionally illiterate, a difficult man to empathise with. It makes for very strained reading; Walpert writes frequently and at-length in difficult emotional territory - about the legacy of guilt, being mired in the past, falling out of love, moving through time at different speeds - but very little of it resonates because none of his characters feel like real people. Even the novels narrator is missing necessary dimensions, despite his voice being the most fully realised of any in the book - an author self-insert that only sometimes feels like a real person and at others like an artful representation of a person, designed to hide the deeper messiness of it's inspiration.
My other major complaint is that Entanglement reads like a novel that thinks it's much smarter than it is. It describes itself as "a time travel novel like no other", and this kind of intellectual arrogance is on display throughout; Walpert dedicates long, rambling passages to layman's descriptions of the cutting edge of philosophical and scientific study into the nature of time, the structure is non-linear (though surprisingly rigid) and it utilises first, second and third-person narration in each of it's three sections. The result is a novel that grants itself more leeway that it really ought to in service of a central conceit that isn't as ground-breaking as it thinks, jerking awkwardly between narrative voices and stumbling regularly into dull academic description. The central themes of Entanglement were perhaps best summed up 7 years ago in the 2014 film Interstellar far more concisely: "Love is the one thing that transcends time and space". The ideas of Entanglement are not going to be new to audiences; they've been explored and articulated in media for decades, even centuries, but Walpert treats then like they are new ground, laboriously laying the groundwork for revelations most readers will have seen 200 pages back. Walpert is also preoccupied with the same metaphors and motifs, recycling them ad nauseum to the point that it strains belief. Nobody in the real world is so singularly preoccupied by events, people and places as the characters in Entanglement. By the end of the novel there is the distinct impression that these people exist in a vacuum outside of the key events described to us, interacting with nobody that isn't critical to the progression of the narrative, engaging with nothing that doesn't propel the plot forward. It only adds to the two-dimensional feel of these characters to have them be so empty beyond the single narrative thread we are following. Entanglement subscribes to the Ludovico Method in it's deployment of allusory techniques, hammering them over and over again so they are impossible to miss, and so impossible to truly appreciate.
It's disappointing that Entanglement misses the mark in so many ways, because there is also a lot to love about this novel. The prose is poetic and deeply-felt; with more believable characters, it could have been beautiful and devastating. While not wholly original, the story Walpert has crafted is tragic and moving; if he weren't so preoccupied with trying to outsmart his audience, a simpler telling could have been much more compelling. A novel that aims for the sun and instead plunges into the ocean, perhaps the most incisive critique of Entanglement comes from the text itself: I began to sense I was reading what should have been early-stage draft material, not published work, material that revealed, to anyone who paid close attention, an impoverished worldview, that I skated on a thin layer of ice above the lake of experience."
On a less significant note, this doesn't read like 'New Zealand Fiction', which admittedly is a nebulous term, but the infrequent mentions of New Zealand feel more like a dart-on-the-map choice than a purposeful, meaningful inclusion. Regional publishers are not beholden to publishing novels that exclusively utilise distinctly local voices, but I was surprised that Mākaro Press chose to publish this given it's lack of Kiwi-flavour.
Entanglement's biggest mountain is it's characters. Not much happens in the novel; this is a book about relationships, both real and remembered, and is most interested in exploring the transcendental properties of love through time. But for a book that is so heavily invested in it's characters, they're woefully underdeveloped. The emotional core of Entanglement is the relationship between the narrator and Anise, the woman he meets in Sydney and eventually marries. But Anise only exists in relation to the narrator; her life beyond this romantic relationship is never explored. She flickers between being a too-good-to-be-true sexual and romantic trophy and a suffering wife, a two-dimensional 'insert-woman-here' in a story about four-dimensional relationships. It's an egregious oversight for any novel to so callously use a female character in such an openly objectifying way, even more so in a novel that hinges on the believably of their emotional connection to propel the entire story forward. Their child together is similarly under-served, existing as a projection of the narrators feelings towards her rather than as an independent person outright. Really every character in Entanglement exists only in orbit around the narrator - his perspective is the only important one, and everyone else is filtered through their relationship and utility to him. A charitable reader might be able to forgive this as a necessity of the structure and ultimate purpose of the text; but it's hard not to interpret the narrator as self-absorbed, narcissistic and emotionally illiterate, a difficult man to empathise with. It makes for very strained reading; Walpert writes frequently and at-length in difficult emotional territory - about the legacy of guilt, being mired in the past, falling out of love, moving through time at different speeds - but very little of it resonates because none of his characters feel like real people. Even the novels narrator is missing necessary dimensions, despite his voice being the most fully realised of any in the book - an author self-insert that only sometimes feels like a real person and at others like an artful representation of a person, designed to hide the deeper messiness of it's inspiration.
My other major complaint is that Entanglement reads like a novel that thinks it's much smarter than it is. It describes itself as "a time travel novel like no other", and this kind of intellectual arrogance is on display throughout; Walpert dedicates long, rambling passages to layman's descriptions of the cutting edge of philosophical and scientific study into the nature of time, the structure is non-linear (though surprisingly rigid) and it utilises first, second and third-person narration in each of it's three sections. The result is a novel that grants itself more leeway that it really ought to in service of a central conceit that isn't as ground-breaking as it thinks, jerking awkwardly between narrative voices and stumbling regularly into dull academic description. The central themes of Entanglement were perhaps best summed up 7 years ago in the 2014 film Interstellar far more concisely: "Love is the one thing that transcends time and space". The ideas of Entanglement are not going to be new to audiences; they've been explored and articulated in media for decades, even centuries, but Walpert treats then like they are new ground, laboriously laying the groundwork for revelations most readers will have seen 200 pages back. Walpert is also preoccupied with the same metaphors and motifs, recycling them ad nauseum to the point that it strains belief. Nobody in the real world is so singularly preoccupied by events, people and places as the characters in Entanglement. By the end of the novel there is the distinct impression that these people exist in a vacuum outside of the key events described to us, interacting with nobody that isn't critical to the progression of the narrative, engaging with nothing that doesn't propel the plot forward. It only adds to the two-dimensional feel of these characters to have them be so empty beyond the single narrative thread we are following. Entanglement subscribes to the Ludovico Method in it's deployment of allusory techniques, hammering them over and over again so they are impossible to miss, and so impossible to truly appreciate.
It's disappointing that Entanglement misses the mark in so many ways, because there is also a lot to love about this novel. The prose is poetic and deeply-felt; with more believable characters, it could have been beautiful and devastating. While not wholly original, the story Walpert has crafted is tragic and moving; if he weren't so preoccupied with trying to outsmart his audience, a simpler telling could have been much more compelling. A novel that aims for the sun and instead plunges into the ocean, perhaps the most incisive critique of Entanglement comes from the text itself: I began to sense I was reading what should have been early-stage draft material, not published work, material that revealed, to anyone who paid close attention, an impoverished worldview, that I skated on a thin layer of ice above the lake of experience."
On a less significant note, this doesn't read like 'New Zealand Fiction', which admittedly is a nebulous term, but the infrequent mentions of New Zealand feel more like a dart-on-the-map choice than a purposeful, meaningful inclusion. Regional publishers are not beholden to publishing novels that exclusively utilise distinctly local voices, but I was surprised that Mākaro Press chose to publish this given it's lack of Kiwi-flavour.
August 6, 2022
I'd heard mixed reviews of this one, and based on what I'd heard didn't think I'd enjoy it, but was surprised to find I enjoyed it very much. Beautifully written, emotionally charged, and featuring time travel; what's not to like?
The ending I feel is ambiguous. Has the narrator actually gone back in time and changed the past, or is he just writing what he wishes he could do? (Following the prompt at the end of the third-to-last chapter, to write a story in which the pivotal moment of his life happens differently). I think it might be the latter.
The ending I feel is ambiguous. Has the narrator actually gone back in time and changed the past, or is he just writing what he wishes he could do? (Following the prompt at the end of the third-to-last chapter, to write a story in which the pivotal moment of his life happens differently). I think it might be the latter.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2022
DNF at 56 pages, do 1 star by definition. Was it the lack of paragraphs? The stream of consciousness and refusal to separate dialogue from description? The probably autobiographical protagonist and the suspicion the author was writing about his own relationship and divorce? Or just that nothing much really happened in 50-something pages, and there was no reason to believe that anything much would happen in the 50 pages after that, let alone the rest of the book? But I guess things happening in a story, or just basic typesetting to help the reader's eye along, is a sign of the "terrible books" he has a casual snobby sneer at in one of those interminable streams of consciousness about the failed relationship.
I should have learned my lesson by now about NZ lit-wankers dabbling in SF: it Does Not End Well. Avoid all of it.
I should have learned my lesson by now about NZ lit-wankers dabbling in SF: it Does Not End Well. Avoid all of it.
May 1, 2022
timetraveller or imagineer? Lots of ideas about quantum physics and time, which matched nicely with the Helgold by Carlo Ravelli which I am reading at teh same time (he is name checked in the book. Three threads - exercises from a writing retreat, a backwards diary of their relationship, and the time traveller goes back to avert disasters in the life of his brother and his daughter (may be imagined). Complex and enjoyable
February 2, 2023
Amazing book! Read it. Unique structure that underlines the time travel element, incredibly poignant insights into love, loss, grieving and marriage. Makes it less a time travel speculative fiction book and more an examination of turning points? Loved the subtle tension that pulls you through to the very end. Can't wait to read more by Bryan. (Also heard him speak at the Readers and Writers Festival in Auckland last year and he was articulate, funny and engaging speaker).
March 19, 2022
A slightly challenging but fascinating read. I loved the way the author played with the concept of time. There were several scientific explanatory passages which were well done and didn't detract from the story. Books that deal with the idea of time travel often fall down by simply losing credibility, but I think this ones almost succeeds by making all the possible pitfalls quite clear!
May 22, 2022
Complicated story of time travel and guilt. Stream of conscientious approach with some very very long sentences!
December 4, 2022
Although written in simple English I'm not particularly fond of how unnecessary long sentences. It doesn't help when I'm trying to finish the book earlier. The way it's written also confuses me about my feelings for different characters throughout the book. Sure it's poetic at times but it's also very physics heavy, I had to constantly look up different terms and definitions which made it a bit tedious to keep my attention too. Props to the writer for excellent research but for a simple reading he's outdone himself.
It's definitely not the best time travel book sadly.
It's definitely not the best time travel book sadly.
January 22, 2023
Ella the I love you, Daddy, the I got you a present, Daddy, your own eyeglasses, the ones for which you had been searching the past hour, now wrapped up in newspaper and handed to you while you are squinting at the small print, cursing your own incompetence.
Devastating.
Devastating.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews