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The Familiar #3
Honeysuckle & Pain
The exciting and radical literary event continues with Honeysuckle & Pain, the third episode in the multi-volume novel from the universally acclaimed, genre-busting author of House of Leaves.
In The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, Xanther, the 12-year-old girl at the center of our story, discovers a new inner strength as the world around her begins to shift inexorably. The hackers Cas and Bobby feel trapped, but are planning a dramatic and dangerous action that may be the key to their freedom. And on the other side of the world, Tian Li’s missing cat is an itch too powerful to resist, and so she and Jingjing set out to recover what has been lost. With the spectacular visuals and vibrant wordplay that are his trademark, this is a beautiful and singular reading experience that could only come from Mark Z. Danielewski—“America’s foremost literary magus” [The New York Times Book Review].
In The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, Xanther, the 12-year-old girl at the center of our story, discovers a new inner strength as the world around her begins to shift inexorably. The hackers Cas and Bobby feel trapped, but are planning a dramatic and dangerous action that may be the key to their freedom. And on the other side of the world, Tian Li’s missing cat is an itch too powerful to resist, and so she and Jingjing set out to recover what has been lost. With the spectacular visuals and vibrant wordplay that are his trademark, this is a beautiful and singular reading experience that could only come from Mark Z. Danielewski—“America’s foremost literary magus” [The New York Times Book Review].
880 pages, Paperback
First published June 14, 2016
37 people are currently reading
3522 people want to read
About the author
Mark Z. Danielewski
20 books8,446 followersMark Z. Danielewski is an American author best known for his books House of Leaves, Only Revolutions, The Fifty Year Sword, The Little Blue Kite, and The Familiar series.
Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He then decided to move to Berkeley, California, where he took a summer program in Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent time in Paris, preoccupied mostly with writing.
In the early 1990s, he pursued graduate studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He later served as an assistant editor and worked on sound for Derrida, a documentary based on the life of the Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida.
His second novel, Only Revolutions, was released in 2006. The novel was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award.
His novel The Fifty Year Sword was released in the Netherlands in 2005. A new version with stitched illustrations was released in the United States 2012 (including a limited-edition release featuring a latched box that held the book). On Halloween 2010-2012, Danielewski "conducted" staged readings of the book at the REDCAT Theater inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Each year was different and included features such as large-scale shadows, music, and performances from actors such as Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad).
On May 12, 2015, he released the first volume, The Familiar (Volume 1): One Rainy Day in May in his announced 27-volume series The Familiar. The story "concerns a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten..." The second volume, The Familiar (Volume 2): Into the Forest was released on Oct. 27, 2015, The Familiar (Volume 3): Honeysuckle & Pain came out June 14, 2016, and The Familiar (Volume 4): Hades arrived in bookstores on Feb. 7, 2017, and The Familiar (Volume 5): Redwood was released on Halloween 2017.
His latest release, The Little Blue Kite, is out now.
Quick Facts
He is the son of Polish avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and the brother of singer and songwriter Annie Decatur Danielewski, a.k.a. Poe.
House of Leaves, Danielewski's first novel, has gained a considerable cult following. In 2000, Danielewski toured with his sister across America at Borders Books and Music locations, promoting Poe’s album Haunted, which reflects elements of House of Leaves.
Danielewski's work is characterized by experimental choices in form, such as intricate and multi-layered narratives and typographical variation.
In 2015, his piece Thrown, a reflection on Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2, appeared on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Official "Yarn + Ink" apparel inspired by his books House of Leaves and The Familiar is now available through his official website, Amazon and Etsy.
His latest short story, "There's a Place for You" was released on www.markzdanielewski.com in August 2020.
Read more on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Z....
Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He then decided to move to Berkeley, California, where he took a summer program in Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent time in Paris, preoccupied mostly with writing.
In the early 1990s, he pursued graduate studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He later served as an assistant editor and worked on sound for Derrida, a documentary based on the life of the Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida.
His second novel, Only Revolutions, was released in 2006. The novel was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award.
His novel The Fifty Year Sword was released in the Netherlands in 2005. A new version with stitched illustrations was released in the United States 2012 (including a limited-edition release featuring a latched box that held the book). On Halloween 2010-2012, Danielewski "conducted" staged readings of the book at the REDCAT Theater inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Each year was different and included features such as large-scale shadows, music, and performances from actors such as Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad).
On May 12, 2015, he released the first volume, The Familiar (Volume 1): One Rainy Day in May in his announced 27-volume series The Familiar. The story "concerns a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten..." The second volume, The Familiar (Volume 2): Into the Forest was released on Oct. 27, 2015, The Familiar (Volume 3): Honeysuckle & Pain came out June 14, 2016, and The Familiar (Volume 4): Hades arrived in bookstores on Feb. 7, 2017, and The Familiar (Volume 5): Redwood was released on Halloween 2017.
His latest release, The Little Blue Kite, is out now.
Quick Facts
He is the son of Polish avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and the brother of singer and songwriter Annie Decatur Danielewski, a.k.a. Poe.
House of Leaves, Danielewski's first novel, has gained a considerable cult following. In 2000, Danielewski toured with his sister across America at Borders Books and Music locations, promoting Poe’s album Haunted, which reflects elements of House of Leaves.
Danielewski's work is characterized by experimental choices in form, such as intricate and multi-layered narratives and typographical variation.
In 2015, his piece Thrown, a reflection on Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2, appeared on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Official "Yarn + Ink" apparel inspired by his books House of Leaves and The Familiar is now available through his official website, Amazon and Etsy.
His latest short story, "There's a Place for You" was released on www.markzdanielewski.com in August 2020.
Read more on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Z....
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
September 14, 2017
2017 Update: The series really comes into its own at this point, rewarding the reader's diligence and astute reading. Payoffs aren't in service of the reader, but rather, expand and complicate the mysteries yet-unfolded.
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The magical mystery world of simulations and simulacrum via Mark Z. Danielewski gets its third--and most satisfying--volume in Honeysuckle & Pain, which expands (and contracts) the 9 characters' lives from the previous entries and their unexpected connections. In true TV Series fashion, MZD doesn't pick up and answer Into the Forest's cliffhanger ending from the outset, instead lets it linger on the reader, almost acting like nothing happened until the events unfold through the narratives of Xanther, her mother and step-father--and even then, the answers are shrouded in more questions that pop up further in the book in (previously and seemingly) unconnected narratives.
Which gets at heart of the power of reaching Volume 3 in this insane project. Where One Rainy Day in May was our pilot episode, introducing characters, getting to know the idiosyncrasies and extravagances of the book (and book-as-object [and object-as-art {and art-as-text}]), Volume 2 introduced us to the world writ-large, the boundaries and non-boundaries, and how those characters we got to meet last time on The Familiar may sort of be linked in themes and motifs and ideas, it's Volume 3 that blows that up and makes the connections more literal while still fraught with problem and concern. What do the connections mean and how will these little bubbles bump into one another. And what impact and reverberations will these two's interaction have rippling throughout the text--questions bloom and blossom like Xanther's "question songs" from the first two books (an act she actively swallows back this time around), creating more chaos as we careen toward something that we as readers don't quite know.
As for what is more deeply at stake than character and plot, MZD is actively blowing up genre writing of almost every form to create a mosaic of disparate and multi-cultured lives, woven like a thick patchwork quilt. You sample something totally different that still builds towards a collective (and cohesive) whole. He's playing with ideas of the existential. Simulation vs. reality (and is there a difference). Cosmic connection. Kindredness. The book is stuffed full, which is alarming because when you've reached Volume 3 it has this power to feel like the ideas are universally prevalent and not new--but they are. And they ways in which MZD is writing them is novel, it is singular. There is nothing like The Familiar (and probably will never be again). If you're interested in experimentation and destruction of form, you must read this series.
Don't be daunted by the size or scope. 880 pages is really more like 250 of text--they're quick-as-lightning reads that reward in copious amounts. Dig in and (en)joi(y)n the ride.
My reviews for other books in the series below:
Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May
Volume 2: Into the Forest
Volume 4: Hades
-----
The magical mystery world of simulations and simulacrum via Mark Z. Danielewski gets its third--and most satisfying--volume in Honeysuckle & Pain, which expands (and contracts) the 9 characters' lives from the previous entries and their unexpected connections. In true TV Series fashion, MZD doesn't pick up and answer Into the Forest's cliffhanger ending from the outset, instead lets it linger on the reader, almost acting like nothing happened until the events unfold through the narratives of Xanther, her mother and step-father--and even then, the answers are shrouded in more questions that pop up further in the book in (previously and seemingly) unconnected narratives.
Which gets at heart of the power of reaching Volume 3 in this insane project. Where One Rainy Day in May was our pilot episode, introducing characters, getting to know the idiosyncrasies and extravagances of the book (and book-as-object [and object-as-art {and art-as-text}]), Volume 2 introduced us to the world writ-large, the boundaries and non-boundaries, and how those characters we got to meet last time on The Familiar may sort of be linked in themes and motifs and ideas, it's Volume 3 that blows that up and makes the connections more literal while still fraught with problem and concern. What do the connections mean and how will these little bubbles bump into one another. And what impact and reverberations will these two's interaction have rippling throughout the text--questions bloom and blossom like Xanther's "question songs" from the first two books (an act she actively swallows back this time around), creating more chaos as we careen toward something that we as readers don't quite know.
As for what is more deeply at stake than character and plot, MZD is actively blowing up genre writing of almost every form to create a mosaic of disparate and multi-cultured lives, woven like a thick patchwork quilt. You sample something totally different that still builds towards a collective (and cohesive) whole. He's playing with ideas of the existential. Simulation vs. reality (and is there a difference). Cosmic connection. Kindredness. The book is stuffed full, which is alarming because when you've reached Volume 3 it has this power to feel like the ideas are universally prevalent and not new--but they are. And they ways in which MZD is writing them is novel, it is singular. There is nothing like The Familiar (and probably will never be again). If you're interested in experimentation and destruction of form, you must read this series.
Don't be daunted by the size or scope. 880 pages is really more like 250 of text--they're quick-as-lightning reads that reward in copious amounts. Dig in and (en)joi(y)n the ride.
My reviews for other books in the series below:
Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May
Volume 2: Into the Forest
Volume 4: Hades
May 30, 2017
I feel like Danielewski really hit his stride in this third book. The characters start to overlap more and you can see the threads being woven together. I have no idea how he is going to sustain this for 27 vols. but I am fully in for the ride. By the time the series is complete I will need a dedicated bookshelf for it.
Xanther continues too fascinate. The final 2 chapters of this were some of the best so far. Keep em coming Mark!
Xanther continues too fascinate. The final 2 chapters of this were some of the best so far. Keep em coming Mark!
July 9, 2016
Okay.
This shit is hitting its stride.
And I'm into it.
It's going to be interesting to review this as it goes to 27 -- reviewing episodes as opposed to a complete text; since I don't really read series, it's something I'm not used to here. So -- what can I say about Volume 3?
It was beautiful, in ways the previous two weren't. It was suspenseful, and strange, and haunting, in ways they weren't and in ways that reminded me of House of Leaves for the first time in the series. It was intense, and the webs are spinning, and something is starting to emerge -- and it's getting good.
VOLUME FOUR WHERE ARE YOU
This shit is hitting its stride.
And I'm into it.
It's going to be interesting to review this as it goes to 27 -- reviewing episodes as opposed to a complete text; since I don't really read series, it's something I'm not used to here. So -- what can I say about Volume 3?
It was beautiful, in ways the previous two weren't. It was suspenseful, and strange, and haunting, in ways they weren't and in ways that reminded me of House of Leaves for the first time in the series. It was intense, and the webs are spinning, and something is starting to emerge -- and it's getting good.
VOLUME FOUR WHERE ARE YOU
January 11, 2018
When I reviewed Volume 2, I said that these books are more like chapters of a novel than books (except for the fact that they are 840 pages long). And Volume 3 confirms that. What we are getting with The Familiar is 27 chapters, each 840 pages long.
There is therefore a limited amount that you can put in a review. After all, you would not write a review of each chapter of a book, and that is effectively what you are doing when reviewing each book in this series.
The 9 stories continue to develop. In this volume, the connections between those stories really begin to grow, to the extent that characters start to meet and some start to play a part in more than one story.
For those who have read the first two volumes, I noticed or think:
1. The Narcons are more prevalent and are breaking their own rules much to their own confusion
2. What is with the continuous wrong spelling of "allways" and allways with the second 'l' highlighted in some way.
3. Mefisto is one to watch.
4. Mnatsagan is one to watch.
5. The Mayor is one to watch.
6. All those start with 'M'. Which I am sure means nothing, but I noticed it!
Just as Volume 2 was darker than Volume 1, so Volume 3 continues this trend. Xanther remains a central character, perhaps even more central now as other stories start to refer to her and gravitate towards her.
This continues to be a fascinating book to read. I think this volume makes it clear that Danielewski knows where he is going. The question will be whether his readers and/or his publisher will go there with him for another 24 books that will take another 10-11 years to arrive.
I thought it was a long term investment in weirdness when I watched all 6 seasons of Lost. But this is a whole different league.
There is therefore a limited amount that you can put in a review. After all, you would not write a review of each chapter of a book, and that is effectively what you are doing when reviewing each book in this series.
The 9 stories continue to develop. In this volume, the connections between those stories really begin to grow, to the extent that characters start to meet and some start to play a part in more than one story.
For those who have read the first two volumes, I noticed or think:
1. The Narcons are more prevalent and are breaking their own rules much to their own confusion
2. What is with the continuous wrong spelling of "allways" and allways with the second 'l' highlighted in some way.
3. Mefisto is one to watch.
4. Mnatsagan is one to watch.
5. The Mayor is one to watch.
6. All those start with 'M'. Which I am sure means nothing, but I noticed it!
Just as Volume 2 was darker than Volume 1, so Volume 3 continues this trend. Xanther remains a central character, perhaps even more central now as other stories start to refer to her and gravitate towards her.
This continues to be a fascinating book to read. I think this volume makes it clear that Danielewski knows where he is going. The question will be whether his readers and/or his publisher will go there with him for another 24 books that will take another 10-11 years to arrive.
I thought it was a long term investment in weirdness when I watched all 6 seasons of Lost. But this is a whole different league.
June 28, 2016
In the music industry, there is an occasional curse of the recently signed newcomer band that runs out of good ideas before its second album, the dreaded "sophomore slump." More recently, reviewers have talked about the existential angst that seizes some bands around their third or fourth album, calling into question the band's vision and musical intent. With a planned 27 volumes in The Familiar series, Mark Z. Danielewski could go through many more Maslow stages than sophomore slump or existential angst. But he has breezed through the two known danger zones with scarcely a sign of faltering.
A few wags will complain that this book is a summer vacation for more than our protagonist Xanther, since events tend to be lazy and drifting at first glance. It's easy to dispel this notion once we get outside the Ibrahim family, since characters like Jingjing and Luther and Teyo could never be described as lazy and drifting. But the view that Book 3 is a lazy river is mistaken for more reasons than that. Suddenly, the East L.A. dope sellers and the vagabond orb manipulators and the cartel killers are linked in very specific and very concrete ways that were not present in the first two volumes of this increasingly interesting, bizarre, and riveting tale. Even someone used to fragmentary, time-jumping narratives, and books with multiple characters, will be thankful that Danielewski has provided the color-coded thumbnails in the corners of his books, because one must pay close attention to what police investigator Ozgur and others are doing. This series of books can lure the reader in with flowing graphics unlike anything else in literature. But attention must be paid to the finest and most inconsequential details, to a level rarely seen in the most complex King thriller or Stephenson sci-fi saga.
The artwork, already incomparable in the first two volumes, grows downright transcendent at times, with the photographic spread of bottles from an undercarriage view recalling a Guinness brewery, or the cover photo of Lee Upton's Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles. The watercolor paintings of the forest with the mysterious "flipped stones" Xanther sees, sometimes black, sometimes a glowing blue, are interspersed with facing pages of utter blackness.
Danielewski is building this series like one of our longer dreams, the kind that dwells in a state of disjointed logic for a time before burrowing into deep nightmare. This third volume is that moment in the dream when there is little obvious reason to be afraid, the connections still are merely odd, but you get the feeling within the dream that things will rapidly turn unpleasant, and The Familiar characters that have carried you through 2700 pages may turn on you at any moment.
This makes the long final scenes at the big cat rescue center particularly relevant, because we wonder when the white lion or Bengal tiger will turn, perhaps we wonder when the absent kitten will turn, but we never imagine that the one we must watch with the most care is Xanther herself. One review of the first volume pointed out that an alternative meaning for "familiar" is the assistant to a great demon. Readers wondered if the little blind kitten was the demon, and Xanther is the familiar. It now seems apparent these roles may be reversed, but with the analysis in the final pages regarding what might be meant by grace and faith, there is no indication that Xanther is anyone to be feared - or is there?
It must be reiterated to those who are put off by Danielewski's use of unusual graphics and white space that this is not a mere compressed graphic novel. The visual experiences beyond the text are by no means a waste of space, they are revelations of a very concrete sort. And taken at face value, in the most mundane of print fonts, Danielewski's writing occasionally drifts into the kind of heart-stopping passages only seen at rare times from Dickens, Proust, Joyce, or Pynchon.
The Lexi-the-polar-bear teaser in the back warns us that Volume 4 may not be available until Winter 2017. This will require a recalibration of clocks, as I come to the conclusion that I very well may not live to see all 27 volumes published. This is all well, everything in its right place. I will follow Xanther's trajectory as long as I am able, and as Jesus apocryphally told St. Andrew, if I can't finish my visit while I am alive, I will continue the journey when I come back as a lizard or toad. Since Xanther seems to hold all species save humans in utter thrall, a mere obsession with The Familiar might well become a worship in another life.
A few wags will complain that this book is a summer vacation for more than our protagonist Xanther, since events tend to be lazy and drifting at first glance. It's easy to dispel this notion once we get outside the Ibrahim family, since characters like Jingjing and Luther and Teyo could never be described as lazy and drifting. But the view that Book 3 is a lazy river is mistaken for more reasons than that. Suddenly, the East L.A. dope sellers and the vagabond orb manipulators and the cartel killers are linked in very specific and very concrete ways that were not present in the first two volumes of this increasingly interesting, bizarre, and riveting tale. Even someone used to fragmentary, time-jumping narratives, and books with multiple characters, will be thankful that Danielewski has provided the color-coded thumbnails in the corners of his books, because one must pay close attention to what police investigator Ozgur and others are doing. This series of books can lure the reader in with flowing graphics unlike anything else in literature. But attention must be paid to the finest and most inconsequential details, to a level rarely seen in the most complex King thriller or Stephenson sci-fi saga.
The artwork, already incomparable in the first two volumes, grows downright transcendent at times, with the photographic spread of bottles from an undercarriage view recalling a Guinness brewery, or the cover photo of Lee Upton's Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles. The watercolor paintings of the forest with the mysterious "flipped stones" Xanther sees, sometimes black, sometimes a glowing blue, are interspersed with facing pages of utter blackness.
Danielewski is building this series like one of our longer dreams, the kind that dwells in a state of disjointed logic for a time before burrowing into deep nightmare. This third volume is that moment in the dream when there is little obvious reason to be afraid, the connections still are merely odd, but you get the feeling within the dream that things will rapidly turn unpleasant, and The Familiar characters that have carried you through 2700 pages may turn on you at any moment.
This makes the long final scenes at the big cat rescue center particularly relevant, because we wonder when the white lion or Bengal tiger will turn, perhaps we wonder when the absent kitten will turn, but we never imagine that the one we must watch with the most care is Xanther herself. One review of the first volume pointed out that an alternative meaning for "familiar" is the assistant to a great demon. Readers wondered if the little blind kitten was the demon, and Xanther is the familiar. It now seems apparent these roles may be reversed, but with the analysis in the final pages regarding what might be meant by grace and faith, there is no indication that Xanther is anyone to be feared - or is there?
It must be reiterated to those who are put off by Danielewski's use of unusual graphics and white space that this is not a mere compressed graphic novel. The visual experiences beyond the text are by no means a waste of space, they are revelations of a very concrete sort. And taken at face value, in the most mundane of print fonts, Danielewski's writing occasionally drifts into the kind of heart-stopping passages only seen at rare times from Dickens, Proust, Joyce, or Pynchon.
The Lexi-the-polar-bear teaser in the back warns us that Volume 4 may not be available until Winter 2017. This will require a recalibration of clocks, as I come to the conclusion that I very well may not live to see all 27 volumes published. This is all well, everything in its right place. I will follow Xanther's trajectory as long as I am able, and as Jesus apocryphally told St. Andrew, if I can't finish my visit while I am alive, I will continue the journey when I come back as a lizard or toad. Since Xanther seems to hold all species save humans in utter thrall, a mere obsession with The Familiar might well become a worship in another life.
Read
January 5, 2017I am now a confessed Series Junkie. Can't wait for #4 and trolling the nets for a release date for #5.
June 24, 2017
Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWzvA...
It's more of the same, and by now I'm sure we all know whether we're in for the full ride. I could mention how some treads need to move faster and I can't stress highly enough JingJing's need to be fucking erased from my life, but the important point is that I'm totally hooked.
It's more of the same, and by now I'm sure we all know whether we're in for the full ride. I could mention how some treads need to move faster and I can't stress highly enough JingJing's need to be fucking erased from my life, but the important point is that I'm totally hooked.
December 15, 2017
Volume 3 of Mark Danielewski's literary "first season" is a continuum of the events and characterisations we have been introduced to in volumes 1 and 2 of The Familiar.
There's only so much that a reviewer can write about a literary work specifically designed, like a TV Box set, to be developed slowly and gradually. The unique presention of the book itself, it's weight, the chapterisation, the shifting typefaces, font size and the layout of text are unusual, unique, but that becomes accepted normality for this series of books. The reader, by volume 3, is nicely familiar with the visual and physical aspects of this production.
So, for the initiated, my highlights in Honeysuckle & Pain include:
* the search for a (cat's) name.
(p255)Two hundred cat name options are listed...not one of them is acceptable; these include Sir Artemis Cuddleton, Katmandu, Hiccup, Askani, and so on. I have plenty of material for my next kitty.
*Peripheral, secondary, supporting characters who may well assume centre stage soon-
- The Mayor . Who or what is this man? Sadist? Sexual predator? Manipulator? He makes my skin creep.
-Mnatsagen- "how well we see beyond ourselves depends first on how well we see ourselves"(371). A man of integrity, wisdom and compassion. He stands out in a world of deception and brutality.
Mephisto (677)"Surveillance seemed at the heart of his involvements"
Paranoia is driving deep into the heart of this series.
Shastri and Freya Twins!! Xanther faces the unity of twins, their bond, their togetherness, their duplicity.
The disparate storylines are, inevitably, coming together.
Xanther has an aura, and talent and foresight of which she is, as yet, oblivious.
We end volume 3 with Satya, magnificent in the narrative, and in the very shape of the words on the page.
Next is Hades
There's only so much that a reviewer can write about a literary work specifically designed, like a TV Box set, to be developed slowly and gradually. The unique presention of the book itself, it's weight, the chapterisation, the shifting typefaces, font size and the layout of text are unusual, unique, but that becomes accepted normality for this series of books. The reader, by volume 3, is nicely familiar with the visual and physical aspects of this production.
So, for the initiated, my highlights in Honeysuckle & Pain include:
* the search for a (cat's) name.
(p255)Two hundred cat name options are listed...not one of them is acceptable; these include Sir Artemis Cuddleton, Katmandu, Hiccup, Askani, and so on. I have plenty of material for my next kitty.
*Peripheral, secondary, supporting characters who may well assume centre stage soon-
- The Mayor . Who or what is this man? Sadist? Sexual predator? Manipulator? He makes my skin creep.
-Mnatsagen- "how well we see beyond ourselves depends first on how well we see ourselves"(371). A man of integrity, wisdom and compassion. He stands out in a world of deception and brutality.
Mephisto (677)"Surveillance seemed at the heart of his involvements"
Paranoia is driving deep into the heart of this series.
Shastri and Freya Twins!! Xanther faces the unity of twins, their bond, their togetherness, their duplicity.
The disparate storylines are, inevitably, coming together.
Xanther has an aura, and talent and foresight of which she is, as yet, oblivious.
We end volume 3 with Satya, magnificent in the narrative, and in the very shape of the words on the page.
Next is Hades
July 1, 2016
Oh man, if I could give this 6 stars, I totally would!
What we know so far:
*Mifesto, Marnie, Cas, and Bobby are a band running from Recluse. Cas, Mifesto, and (maybe?) Marnie are scriers, meaning they can use high tech orbs of information to learn information at will. These orbs are wifi compatible and can be detonated if threatened to fall in the wrong hands.
*The trouble with Mifesto's group began with a video known as "Clip 6", a vision provided by the orb.
*Recluse (at least to what he admits) only knows of 5 clips.
*Xanther is an anomoly meant to be hidden from the force known as Recluse, who is pursuing Mifesto
*Mifesto is perhaps trying to protect Xanther, Anwar, and Astair
*Recluse is the business leader of a corporate entity who Bobby and Cas stole technology from. His name is Alvin A. Anderson. He is hot on their trail, and is most likely responsible for the deaths of the three individual with bleach in LA that Detective Ozgur is investigating.
*Alvin Alex Anderson runs a corporation which has just Anwar to offer him a job: indicating that Xanther and her family are no longer hidden.
*We still don't have a name for Xanther's cat, however, we do know it is probably Jingjing's cat, and thus is the reason Jingjing and Auntie are on their way to Los Angeles
*Jingjing probably partakes of Synsnap, the same artificially manufactured drug being distributed in balloons by Luther's gang, who is turn via Teyo, affiliated with Isadorno (and his employer, the Mayor). Teyo is a middleman between production (The Mayor) and distribution (Luther's gang). Could he potentially be the one who sabotaged the manufacturing plant?
*Jingjing makes reference to a man who just died: ZSL. ZSL is survived by someone who blames "the old witch" and states she must be found! Could this reference the cat, or perhaps Jingjing's master?
*Isadorno has been to the zoo in the north of Mexico before. This zoo lost it's tiger, Satya, who ended up in Toys' private zoo toward the riveting conclusion.
*The detective, Ozgur, is recently informed that Synsnap has been permeating the streets while in the midst of an investigation over bodies drowned in bleach.
*Synsnap is mentioned at Astair's conference as a pharmacologic innovation, perhaps related to memory and memory creation
*Xanther makes mention of "flipping stones" in her mind, of visualizations she can see easily when she closes her eyes. Perhaps these are similar (or the same) stones Jingjing and Auntie use for divination. Stones continue to be a recurring theme, with Anwar and Xanther playing "Go."
*Three is also a recurring theme.
*Xanther becomes violently ill when separated from the cat (the Familiar). However, this relationship is gradually evolving. As seen at Kle's house, she can now fight "the fire" that is inside, and instead winds up in a trance like state. This has happened twice now: once where she was almost ran over, and the second time when she was playing videogames at Kle's house. Once this occurs, the withdrawal from the cat is seemingly quelled for the time being.
*Xanther and Luther run into each other briefly, with Xanther's friend literally bumping into him.
*There are multiple Narrative Constructs (NARCONs) providing commentary and background information. We know that they can police themselves, and by way of programming, punish any NarCon who does not adhere to set perameters. Perhaps these are related to Xanther, or to the orbs in any way?
*Hades, the name of Volume 4, is some event that Anwar and Xanther plan to attend
Am I missing any other major connections thus far? Can someone reiterate any important points missed?
What we know so far:
*Mifesto, Marnie, Cas, and Bobby are a band running from Recluse. Cas, Mifesto, and (maybe?) Marnie are scriers, meaning they can use high tech orbs of information to learn information at will. These orbs are wifi compatible and can be detonated if threatened to fall in the wrong hands.
*The trouble with Mifesto's group began with a video known as "Clip 6", a vision provided by the orb.
*Recluse (at least to what he admits) only knows of 5 clips.
*Xanther is an anomoly meant to be hidden from the force known as Recluse, who is pursuing Mifesto
*Mifesto is perhaps trying to protect Xanther, Anwar, and Astair
*Recluse is the business leader of a corporate entity who Bobby and Cas stole technology from. His name is Alvin A. Anderson. He is hot on their trail, and is most likely responsible for the deaths of the three individual with bleach in LA that Detective Ozgur is investigating.
*Alvin Alex Anderson runs a corporation which has just Anwar to offer him a job: indicating that Xanther and her family are no longer hidden.
*We still don't have a name for Xanther's cat, however, we do know it is probably Jingjing's cat, and thus is the reason Jingjing and Auntie are on their way to Los Angeles
*Jingjing probably partakes of Synsnap, the same artificially manufactured drug being distributed in balloons by Luther's gang, who is turn via Teyo, affiliated with Isadorno (and his employer, the Mayor). Teyo is a middleman between production (The Mayor) and distribution (Luther's gang). Could he potentially be the one who sabotaged the manufacturing plant?
*Jingjing makes reference to a man who just died: ZSL. ZSL is survived by someone who blames "the old witch" and states she must be found! Could this reference the cat, or perhaps Jingjing's master?
*Isadorno has been to the zoo in the north of Mexico before. This zoo lost it's tiger, Satya, who ended up in Toys' private zoo toward the riveting conclusion.
*The detective, Ozgur, is recently informed that Synsnap has been permeating the streets while in the midst of an investigation over bodies drowned in bleach.
*Synsnap is mentioned at Astair's conference as a pharmacologic innovation, perhaps related to memory and memory creation
*Xanther makes mention of "flipping stones" in her mind, of visualizations she can see easily when she closes her eyes. Perhaps these are similar (or the same) stones Jingjing and Auntie use for divination. Stones continue to be a recurring theme, with Anwar and Xanther playing "Go."
*Three is also a recurring theme.
*Xanther becomes violently ill when separated from the cat (the Familiar). However, this relationship is gradually evolving. As seen at Kle's house, she can now fight "the fire" that is inside, and instead winds up in a trance like state. This has happened twice now: once where she was almost ran over, and the second time when she was playing videogames at Kle's house. Once this occurs, the withdrawal from the cat is seemingly quelled for the time being.
*Xanther and Luther run into each other briefly, with Xanther's friend literally bumping into him.
*There are multiple Narrative Constructs (NARCONs) providing commentary and background information. We know that they can police themselves, and by way of programming, punish any NarCon who does not adhere to set perameters. Perhaps these are related to Xanther, or to the orbs in any way?
*Hades, the name of Volume 4, is some event that Anwar and Xanther plan to attend
Am I missing any other major connections thus far? Can someone reiterate any important points missed?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2016
When done absolutely properly, it's almost always fun to watch while authors working with multiple narratives uncurl their wires, twisting them round each other, spots where they all cluster and spots where they seem incomprehensibly far apart. Waiting till the story turns the light bulbs on so that the rest of us can finally see it. For the first time in this series, I felt like I was watching this happen.
(I mean, it's Mark Z Danielewski so the wires are spread, like, PRETTY far- but it's starting, and if he can pull this whole thing together it will be stunning).
I'm not sure if this overall feeling is the reason for this-- but I found myself better able to focus on the narratives I had previously found almost impossible to get through. Though I still inwardly groan whenever I get to the blue or yellow pages, or Luther's or Shnork's-- there are spots where things could get interesting. (Although, Mr. Danielewski, I would very much appreciate if they were a little less annoying to trudge through).
In terms of the visuals and the other narratives: as much fun as the last two. Xanther, Anwar, Astair and Cas are just as interesting and endearing and weird as ever.
... I am still confused about the honeysuckle though? Ah well.
(I mean, it's Mark Z Danielewski so the wires are spread, like, PRETTY far- but it's starting, and if he can pull this whole thing together it will be stunning).
I'm not sure if this overall feeling is the reason for this-- but I found myself better able to focus on the narratives I had previously found almost impossible to get through. Though I still inwardly groan whenever I get to the blue or yellow pages, or Luther's or Shnork's-- there are spots where things could get interesting. (Although, Mr. Danielewski, I would very much appreciate if they were a little less annoying to trudge through).
In terms of the visuals and the other narratives: as much fun as the last two. Xanther, Anwar, Astair and Cas are just as interesting and endearing and weird as ever.
... I am still confused about the honeysuckle though? Ah well.
August 5, 2021
I guess a regular review doesn’t make too much sense for this one: anyone who got to Volume III of “The Familiar” will already be convinced these books are amazing; it’s simply not worth the effort if you have the slightest doubt … Suffice to say that Danielewski continues to deliver the same quality, slowly weaving the ridiculously disparate threads of his epic together in a way that makes it endlessly regrettable that we’ll never have a chance to read the end of these planned 27 volumes … Moreover, this novel performs a magic that only very long books can do: by now, you’ve spent so much time with each character that you’re seeing them change organically before your eyes, that you’ll recounter even minor actors with marvelous recognition, thinking things like “It’s you again! I remember when you still …”
No, let’s try something different here:
This novels, above anything else, make me believe in the good of this world.
Tune down the melodramatics. What I mean is: There is no reason for “The Familiar” to exist, or to have gotten as far as it did, except for the sheer, uncurdled will to create something beautiful. These books don’t make commercial sense––case in point the series’ cancellation after 5 of a planned 27 volumes. With each, there were dozens of people involved in its creation: graphic artists and typesetters, researchers, a dozen translators, throwing anything from computer code to graphic novel pages to a white lioness gorgeously rendered out of curling sentences onto these pages. The time pressure alone must have been hell. Danielewski would have been capable of writing a whip-smart, best-selling horror novel with a fraction of this effort, printed on regular paper, adorned with regular artwork, and it would have done the job … Instead, this is the manifestations of people from all ways of life, not least of them an intrinsically capitalistic publishing company, banding together out of nothing but joy. This didn’t need a brief, heartbreaking narrative about a polar bear cup losing sight of its native icebergs. This didn’t need the beautiful cutout-cover or the printed playing cards or the Game-of-Thrones-sized cast, it didn’t need the mauve stitching holding these superior quality pages together, and it didn’t need the delicate patterning around these stitches so minute that you don’t even notice it unless you open the book by 180 degrees … Yet it’s all there.
In other words: “The Familiar”, to me, isn’t only up there with my favorite book series of all times because of its sprawling narrative, because of how it combines genre fiction and satire and visual art and academic debate and a widely original approach of applying techniques of television to printed books, but because it feels like a testament that there are endlessly talented, reasonably wealthy and powerful people out there who care about creating the most beautiful reading experience possible commercial considerations be damned, who care about the grace of orcas, the serenity of a redwood forest at night, the dreams and worries of one little LA family, and, quite simply, books. For its violence, opacity, intellectual shenanigans, and the fact that each installment is heavy enough to be used as an instrument for manslaughter, “The Familiar” breathes empathy with every page. The human race can disillusioning a lot of the time …
… but not always.
Not allways.
No, let’s try something different here:
This novels, above anything else, make me believe in the good of this world.
Tune down the melodramatics. What I mean is: There is no reason for “The Familiar” to exist, or to have gotten as far as it did, except for the sheer, uncurdled will to create something beautiful. These books don’t make commercial sense––case in point the series’ cancellation after 5 of a planned 27 volumes. With each, there were dozens of people involved in its creation: graphic artists and typesetters, researchers, a dozen translators, throwing anything from computer code to graphic novel pages to a white lioness gorgeously rendered out of curling sentences onto these pages. The time pressure alone must have been hell. Danielewski would have been capable of writing a whip-smart, best-selling horror novel with a fraction of this effort, printed on regular paper, adorned with regular artwork, and it would have done the job … Instead, this is the manifestations of people from all ways of life, not least of them an intrinsically capitalistic publishing company, banding together out of nothing but joy. This didn’t need a brief, heartbreaking narrative about a polar bear cup losing sight of its native icebergs. This didn’t need the beautiful cutout-cover or the printed playing cards or the Game-of-Thrones-sized cast, it didn’t need the mauve stitching holding these superior quality pages together, and it didn’t need the delicate patterning around these stitches so minute that you don’t even notice it unless you open the book by 180 degrees … Yet it’s all there.
In other words: “The Familiar”, to me, isn’t only up there with my favorite book series of all times because of its sprawling narrative, because of how it combines genre fiction and satire and visual art and academic debate and a widely original approach of applying techniques of television to printed books, but because it feels like a testament that there are endlessly talented, reasonably wealthy and powerful people out there who care about creating the most beautiful reading experience possible commercial considerations be damned, who care about the grace of orcas, the serenity of a redwood forest at night, the dreams and worries of one little LA family, and, quite simply, books. For its violence, opacity, intellectual shenanigans, and the fact that each installment is heavy enough to be used as an instrument for manslaughter, “The Familiar” breathes empathy with every page. The human race can disillusioning a lot of the time …
… but not always.
Not allways.
July 8, 2016
"What's this one about?" A co-worker asked me.
"The girls is trying to come up with a name for the cat."
His eyes and brain struggled against each other from rolling/not rolling.
"But it's an amazing journey. Really." I struggle for words to explain the series as frankly, I'm just starting to figure out what I'm reading myself.
I offer up my copy of #1 and he cautiously accepts.
This isn't a series for the summer reader. Switching from Singlish to Spanglish to Ameniaglish (?!) is work. Jingjing's chapters the most brutal for a regular reader and a roadblock for a light reader. But the work, and indeed it can be work, is all rewards.
Imagine you've been dropped off in a corn field. It's 2am. There is no nearby city. The farmhouse is abandoned. Out of the corner of your eye a light flickers between the rows. Then another. Slowly you can make out shapes. That's what it's like reading this series. Honeysuckle & Pain is like a big lantern being raised up, exposing more of the story and clarifying more of what's going on. In the distance, you hear a tractor revving up for harvest. And you know there's just one thing you can do. Run.
"The girls is trying to come up with a name for the cat."
His eyes and brain struggled against each other from rolling/not rolling.
"But it's an amazing journey. Really." I struggle for words to explain the series as frankly, I'm just starting to figure out what I'm reading myself.
I offer up my copy of #1 and he cautiously accepts.
This isn't a series for the summer reader. Switching from Singlish to Spanglish to Ameniaglish (?!) is work. Jingjing's chapters the most brutal for a regular reader and a roadblock for a light reader. But the work, and indeed it can be work, is all rewards.
Imagine you've been dropped off in a corn field. It's 2am. There is no nearby city. The farmhouse is abandoned. Out of the corner of your eye a light flickers between the rows. Then another. Slowly you can make out shapes. That's what it's like reading this series. Honeysuckle & Pain is like a big lantern being raised up, exposing more of the story and clarifying more of what's going on. In the distance, you hear a tractor revving up for harvest. And you know there's just one thing you can do. Run.
July 14, 2016
Part 3 of 32 (or 36), and I'm not sure the reward is worth wading through 800+ pages each volume. I love how Mark Danielewski (a) is brave enough to attempt something like this and (b) plays with the text in the way it is displayed BUT to me this series needs to start moving at a quicker pace to keep me hooked. Each volume does develop the story but, with each volume being so long, I would hope to see more forward motion at the end of each. Both with volumes 2 and 3 I haven't felt that. I am not finishing it with the sense that I can't wait till the next volume. Maybe I'll give volume 4 a try when it comes out, but I hope it moves things forward significantly.
July 20, 2016
Keeps getting better. And I still keep skipping Jingjing.
September 9, 2019
This review will likely contain spoilers
So there I am reading Volume 3 of The Familiar, having so far fairly enjoyed the story being told. I spent the 600 or so pages up to this point reading about how the cat doesn't have a name yet and how Xanther keeps attempting to find one, and being so close to the end, I decided I would go ahead and purchase Volume 4. I go onto Amazon and see Volume 4 is on sale, and I buy it. Out of curiosity, I checked out Volume 5 to see if it too was on sale. I learned something then.
Each Volume has a short description about the cat. Volume 1: Where the cat is found. Volume 2: Where the cat is hungry. I remember reading, when I first found this series, that one of those descriptions was Where the cat is named. Seeing has how this entire Volume was focused on that (in regards to the cat), I assumed it would be this one.
Nope.
Volume 3 is Where the cat is blind. Volume 4 is Where the cat is toothless, and it's only Volume 5 where it will finally be named! All this to say, WHY DID WE SPEND THE ENTIRE VOLUME READING ABOUT XANTHER TRYING TO NAME IT, IF IT WON'T GET IT'S NAME FOR 2 MORE VOLUMES?
Blind? I must be the blind one because I don't see how that description fits this Volume at all. Is it because it supposedly knocked over that thing Astair loved so much? Even in the final chapter, Xanther is still asking about names for her cat.
There I was, about 3 chapters away from the end, and suddenly I realize, once again, not much will actually happen in this Volume.
But I need to take a step back. Spoilers for the end of Volume 2, but if you're reading this, you've hopefully already read Volume 2. At the end of Volume 2, it's heavily implied Xanther walks out of her home in the night and is hit by a car. Danielewski even includes several pages alternating between total black and blood spatters. All done to intentionally make the reader believe Xanther was hit by the car, and hopefully make the reader buy and read the next volume. That's not what happens though. It's all fake.
I rushed into reading this volume to see how the main character survived. Then, this Volume starts by completely ignoring the end of Volume 2. Almost to a frustrating degree. Xanther is perfectly fine. It's all later, only a few chapters in admittedly, we learn she was never hit by a car. Instead, the car stopped in time and avoided her. Which, to me, retroactively makes Volume 2 worse than it already was. Not only did it have no story to tell. Not only was it way too focused on Astair, and way too focused on Lutero's sexual urges, but now it also ends on what is the literal equivalent of clickbait?
Thankfully, though, Volume 3 is actually pretty decent. Not as good as Volume 1, but definitely better than 2. It has some problems I'll go into, but for the most part, it's okay. Unlike Volume 2 which felt like a 300 page story told over 800, Volume 3's length isn't really felt through most of the story.
Most of the perspectives we see actually have something take place. The most interesting, to me, still being Xanther's and Cas' with the orb. In fact, the entire story line following the Orb is easily my favorite to read, partly because it's interesting, and partly because it actually moves along and things are happening. The small downside is, their progression for this Volume can be summed up entirely by saying 'They agree to meet their rival'. In all 841 pages, that's it.
Xanther, and in turn her parents, do actually have a more interesting story this time around than Volume 2. Here to say, they actually have one. The progression of seeing Xanther wrongfully being accused for something she didn't do, being punished for it, the truth coming out and her mom attempting to make up for it, is actually not that bad. There were points in the middle of the book where it seemed we were getting the same thing over and over again. Her parents wondering why Xanther would do it, or why she wasn't saying anything, and Xanther wondering why her sister's ratted her out and why she wouldn't speak up. It does move along though, and as I said, we see her mom attempt to fix it.
As for the other 5 story lines, eh. Like I said, thankfully we weren't reading page after page after page of Lutero having sex in some hotel. I skipped JingJing's chapters, I still can't read those. Shnork drove a lot and got a lucky cat ornament. Can't really say I remember what happened with Ozgur or The Mayor. (For the record, I finished this book the night before posting this.)
Overall, actually reading through this book wasn't as much of a slog as it was to read Volume 2. Like most books, it had its boring moments, or its slow moments, but generally it seemed focused and knew the story it wanted to tell.
So what didn't I like? Not that much. Overall, this Volume was okay. Not too bad, not too good. Just okay. There were still some issues I had.
I don't understand Danielewski's obsession with making Astair's chapters so long. Every one of her chapters is around 40 pages or so. Almost none of them need to be. In fact, none of them need tobe. The stories being told in those chapters are the ones that drag and drag, and so much is being said, but not much is happening. Add onto that her gimmick of the parentheses within parentheses, and those chapters become a chore to read. Every time I've put this series down, it was always on her chapters.
The second to last chapter in the book is an Astair chapter, and it honestly feels like Danielewski saw he only had 2 more chapters to write, but had 100 pages to go to reach 880, and so he just dragged it out. (Literally, the last two chapters are 40ish and 60ish pages respectively.) At least we didn't spend half a chapter seeing how she touched herself in the shower.
My biggest problem with this Volume is what I mentioned at the start. This series is called The Familiar. The Familiar is the cat. The cat is the focus of this entire series. Though there is focus on it, we continue to barely spend time with it, and so far, nothing has really changed. The cat from volume 1 to the cat from volume 3 is the same. But it's just a cat! No. It's the very thing this entire series is named after. Because of the amount of focus put on it, one would expect more.
Instead, we spend the entire book watching Xanther try to come up with a name for it, literally listing off hundreds throughout the book, almost every chapter with Xanther being about names for the cat, and in the end, it was all entirely pointless. It's a lot of buildup and buildup and buildup, that leads no where. Sure, it will in two volumes, but I'm not reading volume 5 right now. I'm reading volume 3.
When this volume is done, when one reaches page 841, that story line is left completely unresolved. Of course, because there are more volumes, but it left a taste of dissatisfaction in my mouth. The book doesn't end. It kinda just stops. Xanther goes with her mom to this zoo essentially, like what happened in the school in Volume 2 and at the kennel, Xanther somehow opens all the cages and accidentally releases a tiger. Xanther tells the tiger to run, and the book stops.
This is why I talked about the ending to volume 2. Knowing how that book ended, and the way volume 3 started, I'm not invested in where this will go, or what it could mean. I know, it won't. I know there is a really good chance Volume 4 will start with something completely different to this and then maybe later we'll learn more about what happened.
I'm going to finish this series, but I'm not surprised at all that only 5 volumes were published. This isn't a series deserving of 27 volumes. It doesn't have enough going on for that. Had Danielewski set out to just write the stories, and tell what needed to be told, and not to fit it all into 880 pages, it might have been a lot better. SO MUCH of the filler would definitely be cut out. We'll see what happens in the next one.
So there I am reading Volume 3 of The Familiar, having so far fairly enjoyed the story being told. I spent the 600 or so pages up to this point reading about how the cat doesn't have a name yet and how Xanther keeps attempting to find one, and being so close to the end, I decided I would go ahead and purchase Volume 4. I go onto Amazon and see Volume 4 is on sale, and I buy it. Out of curiosity, I checked out Volume 5 to see if it too was on sale. I learned something then.
Each Volume has a short description about the cat. Volume 1: Where the cat is found. Volume 2: Where the cat is hungry. I remember reading, when I first found this series, that one of those descriptions was Where the cat is named. Seeing has how this entire Volume was focused on that (in regards to the cat), I assumed it would be this one.
Nope.
Volume 3 is Where the cat is blind. Volume 4 is Where the cat is toothless, and it's only Volume 5 where it will finally be named! All this to say, WHY DID WE SPEND THE ENTIRE VOLUME READING ABOUT XANTHER TRYING TO NAME IT, IF IT WON'T GET IT'S NAME FOR 2 MORE VOLUMES?
Blind? I must be the blind one because I don't see how that description fits this Volume at all. Is it because it supposedly knocked over that thing Astair loved so much? Even in the final chapter, Xanther is still asking about names for her cat.
There I was, about 3 chapters away from the end, and suddenly I realize, once again, not much will actually happen in this Volume.
But I need to take a step back. Spoilers for the end of Volume 2, but if you're reading this, you've hopefully already read Volume 2. At the end of Volume 2, it's heavily implied Xanther walks out of her home in the night and is hit by a car. Danielewski even includes several pages alternating between total black and blood spatters. All done to intentionally make the reader believe Xanther was hit by the car, and hopefully make the reader buy and read the next volume. That's not what happens though. It's all fake.
I rushed into reading this volume to see how the main character survived. Then, this Volume starts by completely ignoring the end of Volume 2. Almost to a frustrating degree. Xanther is perfectly fine. It's all later, only a few chapters in admittedly, we learn she was never hit by a car. Instead, the car stopped in time and avoided her. Which, to me, retroactively makes Volume 2 worse than it already was. Not only did it have no story to tell. Not only was it way too focused on Astair, and way too focused on Lutero's sexual urges, but now it also ends on what is the literal equivalent of clickbait?
Thankfully, though, Volume 3 is actually pretty decent. Not as good as Volume 1, but definitely better than 2. It has some problems I'll go into, but for the most part, it's okay. Unlike Volume 2 which felt like a 300 page story told over 800, Volume 3's length isn't really felt through most of the story.
Most of the perspectives we see actually have something take place. The most interesting, to me, still being Xanther's and Cas' with the orb. In fact, the entire story line following the Orb is easily my favorite to read, partly because it's interesting, and partly because it actually moves along and things are happening. The small downside is, their progression for this Volume can be summed up entirely by saying 'They agree to meet their rival'. In all 841 pages, that's it.
Xanther, and in turn her parents, do actually have a more interesting story this time around than Volume 2. Here to say, they actually have one. The progression of seeing Xanther wrongfully being accused for something she didn't do, being punished for it, the truth coming out and her mom attempting to make up for it, is actually not that bad. There were points in the middle of the book where it seemed we were getting the same thing over and over again. Her parents wondering why Xanther would do it, or why she wasn't saying anything, and Xanther wondering why her sister's ratted her out and why she wouldn't speak up. It does move along though, and as I said, we see her mom attempt to fix it.
As for the other 5 story lines, eh. Like I said, thankfully we weren't reading page after page after page of Lutero having sex in some hotel. I skipped JingJing's chapters, I still can't read those. Shnork drove a lot and got a lucky cat ornament. Can't really say I remember what happened with Ozgur or The Mayor. (For the record, I finished this book the night before posting this.)
Overall, actually reading through this book wasn't as much of a slog as it was to read Volume 2. Like most books, it had its boring moments, or its slow moments, but generally it seemed focused and knew the story it wanted to tell.
So what didn't I like? Not that much. Overall, this Volume was okay. Not too bad, not too good. Just okay. There were still some issues I had.
I don't understand Danielewski's obsession with making Astair's chapters so long. Every one of her chapters is around 40 pages or so. Almost none of them need to be. In fact, none of them need tobe. The stories being told in those chapters are the ones that drag and drag, and so much is being said, but not much is happening. Add onto that her gimmick of the parentheses within parentheses, and those chapters become a chore to read. Every time I've put this series down, it was always on her chapters.
The second to last chapter in the book is an Astair chapter, and it honestly feels like Danielewski saw he only had 2 more chapters to write, but had 100 pages to go to reach 880, and so he just dragged it out. (Literally, the last two chapters are 40ish and 60ish pages respectively.) At least we didn't spend half a chapter seeing how she touched herself in the shower.
My biggest problem with this Volume is what I mentioned at the start. This series is called The Familiar. The Familiar is the cat. The cat is the focus of this entire series. Though there is focus on it, we continue to barely spend time with it, and so far, nothing has really changed. The cat from volume 1 to the cat from volume 3 is the same. But it's just a cat! No. It's the very thing this entire series is named after. Because of the amount of focus put on it, one would expect more.
Instead, we spend the entire book watching Xanther try to come up with a name for it, literally listing off hundreds throughout the book, almost every chapter with Xanther being about names for the cat, and in the end, it was all entirely pointless. It's a lot of buildup and buildup and buildup, that leads no where. Sure, it will in two volumes, but I'm not reading volume 5 right now. I'm reading volume 3.
When this volume is done, when one reaches page 841, that story line is left completely unresolved. Of course, because there are more volumes, but it left a taste of dissatisfaction in my mouth. The book doesn't end. It kinda just stops. Xanther goes with her mom to this zoo essentially, like what happened in the school in Volume 2 and at the kennel, Xanther somehow opens all the cages and accidentally releases a tiger. Xanther tells the tiger to run, and the book stops.
This is why I talked about the ending to volume 2. Knowing how that book ended, and the way volume 3 started, I'm not invested in where this will go, or what it could mean. I know, it won't. I know there is a really good chance Volume 4 will start with something completely different to this and then maybe later we'll learn more about what happened.
I'm going to finish this series, but I'm not surprised at all that only 5 volumes were published. This isn't a series deserving of 27 volumes. It doesn't have enough going on for that. Had Danielewski set out to just write the stories, and tell what needed to be told, and not to fit it all into 880 pages, it might have been a lot better. SO MUCH of the filler would definitely be cut out. We'll see what happens in the next one.
May 18, 2020
NOTE: Publication has stopped at book 5 in this series. I still think it is absolutely worth diving into. Not only is it different in terms of any book I have ever seen, it's filled to the brim with tension and characters that don't fit the typical formula. Inclusion is very strong here. The author is currently working on other avenues to finish the story.
After the explosive finale of the last book, I was itching to dive into this one to see what happened next! Just like the others, this is more than just a book to sit down and read. It's a whole experience!! You can't help but feel that you're there, feeling the pressure that the characters do, feeling where the lines are beginning to overlap and cross in more obvious ways.
We get more familiar with those characters that we may have only had a cursory understanding of before, and we fall more in love with others!!
This is totally worth the journey, even if you're one of those people that feel they can't start something that isn't necessarily finished. This series is a venture that should be supported!! It's different and it's fun!
After the explosive finale of the last book, I was itching to dive into this one to see what happened next! Just like the others, this is more than just a book to sit down and read. It's a whole experience!! You can't help but feel that you're there, feeling the pressure that the characters do, feeling where the lines are beginning to overlap and cross in more obvious ways.
We get more familiar with those characters that we may have only had a cursory understanding of before, and we fall more in love with others!!
This is totally worth the journey, even if you're one of those people that feel they can't start something that isn't necessarily finished. This series is a venture that should be supported!! It's different and it's fun!
October 19, 2017
I am running out of complimentary words to describe Mark's work. The guy is completely original, unique, a genius, and I can only shake my head in wondrous disbelief at the complexity of his books.
I feel lucky to read his words.
I feel lucky to read his words.
March 9, 2017
Soon I will do a proper review of the series so far (through volume 4) - or really less of a review and more of a pleading to seekers of strange art that pushes not just artistic, or literary boundaries, but personal, intimate boundaries. The world of The Familiar is wonderful and daring full of hypercolor and hyperobjects and I can't do it much justice in this short review outside of saying - READ THESE BOOKS. In 500 years these books will still be enchanting in the way William Blake's works are. That said - stay tuned for a more in depth explanation as to why I feel this way, but again in the meantime:
READ THESE BOOKS
READ THESE BOOKS
READ THESE BOOKS
READ THESE BOOKS
READ THESE BOOKS
READ THESE BOOKS
July 26, 2025
Tome 3 terminé dans ma relecture estivale de ce qui est probablement la série la moins propice à une «lecture légère d'été» au sens où on l'entend. Le style de Danielewski se raffine encore plus (si c'était possible), l'horreur cosmique se complexifie, mais en même temps, les neuf histoires commencent de plus en plus à se rapprocher les unes des autres, certains personnages se croisant même à quelques reprises, même s'ils ne se reconnaissent pas encore (mais les narrateurs omniscients se font un plaisir de nous le rappeler).
Si je ne savais pas que la série a été avortée après 5 romans sur les 27 prévus, je serais même excité par la suite des choses.
Là, j'ai simplement hâte de voir comment les cinq romans se conclueront, avec ce que l'auteur qualifiait d'abord de «fin de la première saison». J'espère qu'il y aura une sorte de conclusion satisfaisante à tout cela, même si la majorité des questions seront sans doute sans réponse.
Pour ce qui est du troisième tome, c'est probablement mon préféré jusqu'à maintenant, simplement par le style qui se raffine. Puis, l'idée de ramener certains passages des deux livres précédents avec des indications demandant au lecteur de retourner lire des pages précises est un bel ajout, même si pour le moment, ces bifurcations sont plutôt sans conséquence, et généralement sans intérêt, sinon que de suivre le jeu de piste pensé par l'auteur.
J'adore cette série qui restera profondément ancrée dans mon imaginaire, même si on n'en saura probablement jamais la fin. Quoi que l'avenir nous réserve peut-être des surprises. Espérons-le.
Si je ne savais pas que la série a été avortée après 5 romans sur les 27 prévus, je serais même excité par la suite des choses.
Là, j'ai simplement hâte de voir comment les cinq romans se conclueront, avec ce que l'auteur qualifiait d'abord de «fin de la première saison». J'espère qu'il y aura une sorte de conclusion satisfaisante à tout cela, même si la majorité des questions seront sans doute sans réponse.
Pour ce qui est du troisième tome, c'est probablement mon préféré jusqu'à maintenant, simplement par le style qui se raffine. Puis, l'idée de ramener certains passages des deux livres précédents avec des indications demandant au lecteur de retourner lire des pages précises est un bel ajout, même si pour le moment, ces bifurcations sont plutôt sans conséquence, et généralement sans intérêt, sinon que de suivre le jeu de piste pensé par l'auteur.
J'adore cette série qui restera profondément ancrée dans mon imaginaire, même si on n'en saura probablement jamais la fin. Quoi que l'avenir nous réserve peut-être des surprises. Espérons-le.
April 7, 2019
I keep reading these because House of Leaves is one of my favorite books, and I like fifty year sword as well- but I don't know if I recommend this series. This is the best of the first three books .
First, I get that the work is "experimental" and meant to mimic the concept of a television show, but I cant help think: this is a three book series (max) that's being dragged out over many more volumes by an author that is more concerned with typesetting than he is story. In other words: I wish he had just written a novel.
To compare: the House of Leaves format play is an integral part of the story. One of the protagonists stories contained in the footnotes of a book he found. A sort of Pale Fire for Gen X. But while Nabokov used footnotes in Pale Fire, he didn't feel the need to give the reader Lolita's internal monologue, which Danielewski does here- for every character. I dont think it serves the story. Instead, I think it's a hindrance.
I'll still read books 4 and 5, but largely because I want to know what happens before the end of "season 1" but I would be hard pressed to continue if the now cancelled series of books was rebooted.
First, I get that the work is "experimental" and meant to mimic the concept of a television show, but I cant help think: this is a three book series (max) that's being dragged out over many more volumes by an author that is more concerned with typesetting than he is story. In other words: I wish he had just written a novel.
To compare: the House of Leaves format play is an integral part of the story. One of the protagonists stories contained in the footnotes of a book he found. A sort of Pale Fire for Gen X. But while Nabokov used footnotes in Pale Fire, he didn't feel the need to give the reader Lolita's internal monologue, which Danielewski does here- for every character. I dont think it serves the story. Instead, I think it's a hindrance.
I'll still read books 4 and 5, but largely because I want to know what happens before the end of "season 1" but I would be hard pressed to continue if the now cancelled series of books was rebooted.
July 23, 2016
In this volume, we see still more connections appearing between what started as fairly disparate characters. Because he appears more in this volume, I have come to appreciate and enjoy Schnork as a character, even if his place in this grand tale has yet to become apparent. His laws about driving have me feeling a kinship with him. Once again, the Jing Jing sections are the worst parts of the book for me as the speech pattern is so bizarre (even if perhaps accurate to the character's ethnicity) as to render his story nearly incomprehensible. Hell, the NARCONs even refer to this at one point. I understand that Danielewski is known for his experimental style and he certainly doesn't want to give away his grand design of The Familiar (really wish I could type that in pink)yet, but I don't know why he chooses to be purposefully obtuse in these sections.
August 28, 2016
Still amazing, but feeling a bit slow.
August 26, 2016
To MZD: oh, please, don't stop.
August 29, 2016
It remains to be seen how things go from here, but I believe this series is beginning to hit its stride here. I'm all strapped in for the ride ahead.
March 11, 2021
I really enjoy Mark Z. Danielewski's storytelling style. The author of House of Leaves has figured out a way to make books part of the story and pull me back into the kind of reading I did as a kid, while talking about adult themes and without over-simplifying things. The immersive fonts and pages is great and really makes this book a faster read than it's 800+ pages would have you think.
That being said, I'm sad, but understand, why his 26 volume story is cut off at 5. In an age when people are becoming very aware of wasteful materials and recycling, even if his books are printed on recycled paper, there is a LOT of empty space in these pages, and while I'm sure there's a point to it, sometimes it just feels like he just wanted you to get the feel of flipping pages quickly again. The artwork is beautiful on some pages, and the color-coded corners for different points of view is great, and I can't wait to read the rest of this story (great cliff-hanger ending)!
That being said, I'm sad, but understand, why his 26 volume story is cut off at 5. In an age when people are becoming very aware of wasteful materials and recycling, even if his books are printed on recycled paper, there is a LOT of empty space in these pages, and while I'm sure there's a point to it, sometimes it just feels like he just wanted you to get the feel of flipping pages quickly again. The artwork is beautiful on some pages, and the color-coded corners for different points of view is great, and I can't wait to read the rest of this story (great cliff-hanger ending)!
February 18, 2018
The Familiar shows no sign of slowing down. As I finished Volume 2, I was unsure of how Danielewsi could top it, but he has with Volume 3. Storylines are beginning converge and questions piled ontop of each other in a delicious, albeit, mysterious medley. Whether you read for just the plot or delve deep into the allusions and puzzles this book will not disappoint.
#BeAHymnForGood
#BeAHymnForGood
May 14, 2025
Best book in the series so far.
As a side note, I absolutely love how each volume ends with a credits page stating which font played each character. Every time it appears it’s hilarious.
As a side note, I absolutely love how each volume ends with a credits page stating which font played each character. Every time it appears it’s hilarious.
January 13, 2018
In Volume 3 the nine storylines finally begin to coalesce into something puzzling and spooky.
June 19, 2016
Volume 3 slows down a bit after the frantic hunger of book 2. But Danielewski digs deep, and calls forth even more poetry and meaningful thinking from our characters (the only drawback to it would be a slight feeling of dissonance from certain characters -- which at this stage in the game is probably working more toward development than contradiction, but it did surprise me a bit). In addition to the poetic thinking, we get a deeper sense of connectivity and eeriness, strange coincidences and threads falling together. Though the series is already settling into expected television-esque cliffhanger/epic endings, what's most powerful (in terms of a reading experience) is the thrill that's produced from something as simple as two characters crossing paths, if only for the briefest of moments. This speaks to the strength of storytelling already so present, and the way that these books will keep a hold on readers throughout the developments and denouements as the series grows... and grows... and grows.
(PS: maybe it's because these books have such a far reach of topics and references and poetic asides, but the number of familiar synchronicities in my life during my days of reading has gotten... a bit uncanny. Curious if anyone else has noticed this sort of thing themselves. Though I'm already prejudiced toward synchronicity given my own interests, they are that much more interesting given the Redwood synchronicity that helped reassure MZD in the deserts of Burning Man...)
(PS: maybe it's because these books have such a far reach of topics and references and poetic asides, but the number of familiar synchronicities in my life during my days of reading has gotten... a bit uncanny. Curious if anyone else has noticed this sort of thing themselves. Though I'm already prejudiced toward synchronicity given my own interests, they are that much more interesting given the Redwood synchronicity that helped reassure MZD in the deserts of Burning Man...)
October 3, 2017
This series is getting better and better. It's amazing how easy it is to find back into the story after waiting for a few months for the continuation. Xanther’s storyline is developing extremely great and I even feel growing closer to those characters I didn’t like too much so far, like JingJing or Shnork.
I couldn’t help getting goosebumps from time to time when the story took another unexpected turn (what’s up with those Xanther disciples for example?). I am so eager to read the next book, the cliffhanger in the end is almost unbearable.
______
Re-read September 2017.
It's amazing how many little details, that have been overlooked during the first read, will pop up while re-reading. Especially when reading this together with the crazy (in a good way) community of the official The Familiar Bookclub on Facebook. The incredible amount of collective thinking that takes place in that group enhances the experience in a very special way. Now up to re-reading TFv4 - Hades until Vol. 5 will finally arrive in November.
I couldn’t help getting goosebumps from time to time when the story took another unexpected turn (what’s up with those Xanther disciples for example?). I am so eager to read the next book, the cliffhanger in the end is almost unbearable.
______
Re-read September 2017.
It's amazing how many little details, that have been overlooked during the first read, will pop up while re-reading. Especially when reading this together with the crazy (in a good way) community of the official The Familiar Bookclub on Facebook. The incredible amount of collective thinking that takes place in that group enhances the experience in a very special way. Now up to re-reading TFv4 - Hades until Vol. 5 will finally arrive in November.
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