Part of the World

by Robert Lopez

Part of the World is a fugue in both a musical and psychological sense. It is a canonical juggernaut of lyrical language—ever dissolving, devolving, shifting, then reconstituting itself into a new knowledge of reality. This language comes straight from a compulsive mind in a Quixotic state—ceaselessly harping on the everyday perturbations and peculiarities of our humdrum lives—our cars, apartments, health, finances. But if you relax your focus as if staring at some sort of holographic fractal, with each part containing the whole, the superficial meaning is purged, layer by layer, peeling back and revealing the subtext of what the mind is capable of under the burden of trauma and accountability.

Genres: Fiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Andy]

Very droll, very flat affect and very musical in its rhythms and subtly varying repetitions. It's always great to come across a young writer who's talent is so much to one's personal taste that one vows to read, thenceforth, whatever of his makes it into print. Robert Lopez is definitely in that catagory for me.

P.S. His "Kamby Bolongo Mean River" is due out in September.

[Cortney]

This book is circular and full of contradictions. This book has a definite linearity and makes everything clear. Books with contradictions often have unreliable narrators. Sometimes I am mistaken.

Well played, Mr. Lopez, well played.

[John]

Part of the World is full of trickery and dark humor. Manic, mindbinding, musical--and always masterful.

[Mark]

an interesting take on the unreliable (and to some extent unlikeable) narrator, a near shut-in afraid of the world and continuously worrying over the small bits of it that still cross his attention. anecdotes repeat and contradict, details merge or swap, and not until very close to the end of the novel does the action of the story reveal itself. i was quite impressed by how neatly the story fit once that point was reached, but overall i can't say i enjoyed reading most of it.

[Helen]

"Why is it that a dog sleeping in the sun is beautiful, but a guy trying to get money from a bank machine looks like an idiot?"

I think this book makes the guy at the bank machine beautiful too.

[Tao]

i liked it.