The Wave

by Lochlan Bloom

Just how far is it from London to Gotham City Or from Paul Auster to Pierre Menard for that matter Some people may think these sorts of questions are idle and ultimately meaningless but this book is not for them. Three intertwined narratives play out as the stories of , an isolated loner, DOWN, a depressed publisher, and David Bohm, a real-life quantum theoretician in post-war So Paulo, become entangled. The closer each of these trails leads to the dark centre of the world the more reality disintegrates. Dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, and reason and nonsense drag each of the characters struggling into an absurd, labyrinthine world of seemingly infinite regress. Praise for Lochlan Bloom's Vivid, taut and grimly effective work - Paul Ashton, BBC Writersroom Beautiful and eloquent.... very well structured and an extremely engaging read. Suspense and tension are built really well within the piece, and the sinister atmosphere evoked is powerful. - National Theatre Scotland

Hardcover

Published January 29, 2016

About the author

Lochlan Bloom is a British novelist, screenwriter and short story writer.

He is the author of the novel The Wave, published by Dead Ink Books as part of their New Voices series, The Open Cage from Australian publisher InShort and the novella Trade.

The Wave was one of three novels selected for the Publishing The Underground initiative funded by Arts Council England.

He has written for Slant Magazine, BBC Radio, Litro Magazine, Porcelain Film, IronBox Films, The Metropolist, EIU, H+ Magazine, Palladium Magazine and Calliope, the official publication of the Writers’ Special Interest Group (SIG) of American Mensa, amongst others.

Reviews

[Marc Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was a wild ride! 3 narrative threads, one of which is written in the form of a film script (although not immediately obvious as to why) and their maybe inter-linkedness offers three different realities (dimensions?) rubbing up against each other.

The two authors it brought to mind are Christopher Priest's juxtaposition of differing realities, and maybe bizarrely, Franz Kafka as the twists and turns of a reasonably passive main character Mu (actually represented by the Greek letter but I can't reproduce that here), reminded me so much of the twists and turns of Josef K, K and Karl Rossmann as they bumble from one obstacle to another, never in control, never really appreciating the reality of what they're confronting.

Included in video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l31F...

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I debated adding that 5th star. In fact, I'd like to read more books just like this one.

I love kaleidoscopic narratives. I appreciate postmodern remove. However, the abrupt shifts in narrative coupled with the surreal, dissociative tone made it difficult for me to stay engaged with anything that was happening. For me, it's missing that last ingredient, some binding element to make the story feel whole and immediate. (Or I missed it.) (There's always that possibility.)

(Well, it's all subjective, innit?)

[Kate A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever Ddunsel was, or represented, was both dark and mysterious in its pull. He was the hole at the centre. μ knew next to nothing about him but felt himself spinning faster and faster. His life had grown so empty recently that, whatever the consequences, this encounter was something he craved, an axe to the frozen sea inside.

The Wave is a book that is very hard to describe, as it is unlike any novel I have come across. Its three most prominent characters are μ who discovers a screenplay and then goes on the hunt for its principal character Ddunsel, DOWN a publisher who finds himself pushed to the edge and David Bohm a quantum theoretician who travels through São Paulo to work on one of his theories.

Each of the three narratives reference each other in a way that makes you aware of the fantasy/reality divide. It leads you to draw conclusions about the progression of the world the author has created in The Wave without them being thrown in your face. It isn’t a linear timeline; instead parts of the story unfold at different points in the characters journey, which I quite enjoyed because it kept me drawn into the novel.

The book incorporates both narrative and screenplay, which gives it a really nice contrast. I feel like the screenplay section was a good reprieve as the other sections of the story had a lot to consider and take in, and on occasion very dark currents. The screenplay managed to somewhat balance those out for me, whilst it wasn’t light-hearted, it had a lighter feel to it; it stopped the book from becoming too morose.

I feel that this book is geared more towards making the reader think about experiences and establishing their own ideas about what the stories are trying to say, as opposed to just consuming the events that happen in the book. The exceptionally expressive writing contributes to this, it is both beautiful and complex and is able to illustrate the worlds of the characters effortlessly, in a way that adds to the overall mystery of the book.

I will be very honest and admit that I did get a bit lost in the scientific/theoretic discussions. There was a lot that I could pick up from the explanations in the book, however there were some sections that still eluded me to a point. These areas admittedly are not my strongpoint, as I don’t have a background in quantum physics never mind theoretical quantum physics, but I wouldn’t let that put anyone off. Even though I didn’t have the full grasp of all the theories, I didn’t feel that I missed out on any part of the story or enjoyed it any less because of that.

Personally I believe this book is like a piece of art, everyone will experience it differently, people will read it and draw entirely varied conclusions from each other but also from the author. It is exquisitely singular.

Thank you to the author and Neverland Blog Tours for the review copy of this book.

https://everywhereandnowhereblog.word...

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would counsel reading only from subchapter Brazil; despite distressing affliction caused by vernacular language to itself. Entwined jaundiced unfulfillment of the absolute.

Example of internal monologue:
''Was there any hope for causality if you could not ever reach the first cause?''(203 -no)

''Why can we never be satisfied with ourselves?''(204)

''Had he always been asleep?''(219)

''Currents of dreams swirled beneath the surface of his thoughts. A river... An immense river, he had been trying to reach somewhere, somebody, attain something. Had he made it? Had he even been there, aboard a ship? It had been so hot, like a giant sweating sea of moisture. The image evaporated. It was nothing - a fiction, a dream - but then where had he been?''(219-220)

''All language is a failed attempt to describe the world. Human relationships are illusory. The existence of intelligence in the world is unproven. We can never hope to understand the ultimate intelligence.''(224)

...

[Mark Sodergren · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was the strangest book I’ve read for a while. Thoroughly enjoyed it though (I think), couldn’t put it down.

[Amy]

When I first got offered this book for review and to be part of the blog tour, this seemed really unique to read.

When I started reading this, I admit that this was the case and it was really weird to read. As someone who normally does read YA fiction, reading this was so left field and different to what I normally read which did catch me off guard as I was confused about the plot and found the main character's action a bit unusual to me. However, I still wanted to prevail and continued with the book.

The book is quite mindbending in which you follow many different characters including μ which is told in normally narrative and DOWN who's narrative is told in screenplay form. This makes the story confusing at times as you have to parallel narratives that you keep switching between. I often found that although I do like the use of a screenplay that when told in DOWN's POV I did just want this to switch back, feeling more interested in one viewpoint than the other.

Due to the fact that this story is adult fiction, there are also sometimes which I found uncomfortable due to the nature of the content as reading about sex scenes and some language used meant that I was taken back by these which put me off the story.

As the story progressed, I became less interested in the story, I was trying to piece together bits of the story and I was becoming really quite disengaged with the story but just continued with it to see if it was going to get better and the fact that I was part of the blog tour made the interest greater.

I should have been really interested in this story but something was off, I don't know if it was the third POV that made me quite disconnected but I just did not feel like I really cared about how the story progressed or how he progresses in the story.

To be honest, I did become quite disinterested in the overall story to the point that I spent most of the time skim reading the book and did decide to DNF the book.

Maybe it was because I started the book at the wrong time or maybe it just was not my thing but I may give it another go at a different time but this was not the book for me at the time.

I would say that you should still give this book a go even if I did not really like it.

So that is my review of The Wave by Lochlan Bloom.