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A Hypocritical Reader
‘Splicing the Choose Your Own Adventure format, sci-fi, metafiction, absurdism and social critique, Rosie Šnajdr A Hypocritical Reader is experimental fiction at its most animated and innovative. This is the future literature we need but haven't seen. You read it here first.’ - Isabel Waidner
'A warping, wending, distending, distressing, flaming lightening strike of a book--Šnajdr summons forces to be reckoned with.' - Eley Williams
A Hypocritical Reader is your emancipation, reader. Want to lose yourself in your favourite genre? This book is for you. Want to question the influence of modernist experimentalism on the short story form? This book is also for you. Want to explore that unspeakable Barthesian dictum? Okay? You want to psychoanalyse the (female) writer? Hmmm. Follow the book's emotional arc, or pick your own path by choosing which pages to turn to. Hell, you can even clip out the individual words and collage your way into exciting new worlds. Just don’t tell the author.
This book is Calvino, with an attitude.
Rosie Šnajdr is an author, editor, and academic. Her work has appeared in The Cambridge Literary Review, Liberating the Canon: An Anthology of Innovative Literature (Dostoyevsky Wannabe), and is forthcoming in TOTAL CANT (Cant Books).
'A warping, wending, distending, distressing, flaming lightening strike of a book--Šnajdr summons forces to be reckoned with.' - Eley Williams
A Hypocritical Reader is your emancipation, reader. Want to lose yourself in your favourite genre? This book is for you. Want to question the influence of modernist experimentalism on the short story form? This book is also for you. Want to explore that unspeakable Barthesian dictum? Okay? You want to psychoanalyse the (female) writer? Hmmm. Follow the book's emotional arc, or pick your own path by choosing which pages to turn to. Hell, you can even clip out the individual words and collage your way into exciting new worlds. Just don’t tell the author.
This book is Calvino, with an attitude.
Rosie Šnajdr is an author, editor, and academic. Her work has appeared in The Cambridge Literary Review, Liberating the Canon: An Anthology of Innovative Literature (Dostoyevsky Wannabe), and is forthcoming in TOTAL CANT (Cant Books).
114 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 15, 2020
It is a daring collection and i can see how hard Rosie is trying to show the wide range of her writing abilities and the ability to experiment with style. These things are impressive. But still as a whole I felt this collection is lacking a bit of a soul. She is deliberately creating a maze of fragmentary paragraphs even within a single story. And the reader needs to work to put it all together. I guess the idea is that the story would appear unique for every individual reader. Or, moreover, that there is no coherent story and the narrative is not the point. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not work for me.
The story I liked the most was "Mobius strip". It was probably the most traditional by Rosie's standard, but there she managed to be experimental and lyrical at the same time. The structure of chapters and the structure of the narrative does remind the aforementioned twisted strip, but it is also full of real feelings.
"Future perfect/Arizona" was not bad either. I enjoyed her verbal dexterity, but was less fascinated by the systematic attempt to use future perfect tense. The exercise has reminded me of school's grammar lessons.
The idea of "Chose your own adventure story" has been done before many times. The most famous and successful (imho) is Hopscotch. Here it is a little awkward. I tried skipping many times but it felt a little random.
Two parts of "Nativity play" required some work to put it all together. And I did eventually, I think. It was quite satisfactory exercise at the end.
"Document" seems to be a pastiche on Gothic or late Victorian maybe. But not much more.
And the last story "Postlewd" is probably supposed to be some kind of "me too" creative response. But i did not get how swapping sexual organs are supposed to signify anything.
Overall - experimental - yes; fragmentary - yes; verbally challenging - yes. But not quite "Calvino with attitude" promised by the blurb.
The story I liked the most was "Mobius strip". It was probably the most traditional by Rosie's standard, but there she managed to be experimental and lyrical at the same time. The structure of chapters and the structure of the narrative does remind the aforementioned twisted strip, but it is also full of real feelings.
"Future perfect/Arizona" was not bad either. I enjoyed her verbal dexterity, but was less fascinated by the systematic attempt to use future perfect tense. The exercise has reminded me of school's grammar lessons.
The idea of "Chose your own adventure story" has been done before many times. The most famous and successful (imho) is Hopscotch. Here it is a little awkward. I tried skipping many times but it felt a little random.
Two parts of "Nativity play" required some work to put it all together. And I did eventually, I think. It was quite satisfactory exercise at the end.
"Document" seems to be a pastiche on Gothic or late Victorian maybe. But not much more.
And the last story "Postlewd" is probably supposed to be some kind of "me too" creative response. But i did not get how swapping sexual organs are supposed to signify anything.
Overall - experimental - yes; fragmentary - yes; verbally challenging - yes. But not quite "Calvino with attitude" promised by the blurb.
April 19, 2018
This book is astonishing.
I'll start with a warning. Well, maybe two warnings. Firstly, don’t make the mistake I did and get distracted by the book’s structure. Read it first before you think about it. I'll explain. The second story is called "Choose Your Own Adventure Story" and a few pages into it you are presented with choices as to which page to go to next. All choices seem to take you into the middle of another story, or even the middle of another sentence. If like me, you then notice that all the mentioned pages have a new story starting just two pages later, you might be tempted to jump to the wrong conclusion. You might, if you were really foolish, be tempted to send a message to your GR friend who has read the book asking if there is an error in your copy. But that would be embarrassing and no one would be that daft (cough)*. This second story is scattered around in the gaps between other stories and you navigate through it by responding to questions or statements at various decision points.
'I'm lost.' Then turn to page 94.
'I've lost.' Turn to page 102.
'You've lost me.' Page 76.
So, you can experience this story in many different ways by responding differently to the decision points. Fascinating, but confusing, especially as there is no clear narrative connection between the different sections and, as I say, some start in mid-sentence. I think the disorienting influence of this story is intentional at the start of the book in order to put you in (or out) of the right frame of mind to read the rest.
Second warning: one of the stories is explicitly pornographic. It might not be to everyone's taste (it was a shock to me and not the kind of thing I would normally read on purpose). Although it has to be said that it is not a "normal" pornographic story, which you will discover for yourself if you read it.
But mixed in with this mind-bending "choose your own adventure" story and the pornography, there are ten more stories that are, as I said at the start, astonishing. I cannot claim to have understood them all. The writing is exhilarating, but it sometimes hard to get at the stories being told. I think this is fundamentally because I am not clever enough: this book is very "experimental" (whatever that means). If you read last year’s Gaudy Bauble, then think of that and sort of double it. It's experimental in different ways, but I found it made my head ache more!
There’s a "The Prestige"-like opening story about cloning that happens when a matter transporter malfunctions. But after you’ve then read the second story that invites you to choose your own route through it, you realise that perhaps you should choose your own route through the remaining stories. I know for certain that I will be re-reading this book at some stage and I think it may well pay to read the stories in a different order - to choose my own adventure not just in the one story that presents me with options, but in the book as a whole. There’s an awful lot about Tom and Rosie, but I am far from clear about what actually happened. "Tom" and "Rosie" might just be convenient labels in different stories.
If you like your fiction experimental, if you enjoy word play and stunningly original sentences, if you don’t mind stories that confuse and require more than one reading and if you don’t mind a bit of pornography, then this is a book well worth spending time with. You would think that 112 pages would be a quick read. Third and final warning: this is not a quick read.
I am giving this 4 stars after the first reading based on the energy and inventiveness of the writing. As I say, I will go back and re-read this soon to try to make a bit more sense of the overall stories (and, possibly, story). I really could not say at the moment whether that re-read will mean 5 stars or 2. The book is that original.
* In my defence, he didn't reply immediately and I worked out what was going on without outside intervention - it just took a while.
I'll start with a warning. Well, maybe two warnings. Firstly, don’t make the mistake I did and get distracted by the book’s structure. Read it first before you think about it. I'll explain. The second story is called "Choose Your Own Adventure Story" and a few pages into it you are presented with choices as to which page to go to next. All choices seem to take you into the middle of another story, or even the middle of another sentence. If like me, you then notice that all the mentioned pages have a new story starting just two pages later, you might be tempted to jump to the wrong conclusion. You might, if you were really foolish, be tempted to send a message to your GR friend who has read the book asking if there is an error in your copy. But that would be embarrassing and no one would be that daft (cough)*. This second story is scattered around in the gaps between other stories and you navigate through it by responding to questions or statements at various decision points.
'I'm lost.' Then turn to page 94.
'I've lost.' Turn to page 102.
'You've lost me.' Page 76.
So, you can experience this story in many different ways by responding differently to the decision points. Fascinating, but confusing, especially as there is no clear narrative connection between the different sections and, as I say, some start in mid-sentence. I think the disorienting influence of this story is intentional at the start of the book in order to put you in (or out) of the right frame of mind to read the rest.
Second warning: one of the stories is explicitly pornographic. It might not be to everyone's taste (it was a shock to me and not the kind of thing I would normally read on purpose). Although it has to be said that it is not a "normal" pornographic story, which you will discover for yourself if you read it.
But mixed in with this mind-bending "choose your own adventure" story and the pornography, there are ten more stories that are, as I said at the start, astonishing. I cannot claim to have understood them all. The writing is exhilarating, but it sometimes hard to get at the stories being told. I think this is fundamentally because I am not clever enough: this book is very "experimental" (whatever that means). If you read last year’s Gaudy Bauble, then think of that and sort of double it. It's experimental in different ways, but I found it made my head ache more!
There’s a "The Prestige"-like opening story about cloning that happens when a matter transporter malfunctions. But after you’ve then read the second story that invites you to choose your own route through it, you realise that perhaps you should choose your own route through the remaining stories. I know for certain that I will be re-reading this book at some stage and I think it may well pay to read the stories in a different order - to choose my own adventure not just in the one story that presents me with options, but in the book as a whole. There’s an awful lot about Tom and Rosie, but I am far from clear about what actually happened. "Tom" and "Rosie" might just be convenient labels in different stories.
If you like your fiction experimental, if you enjoy word play and stunningly original sentences, if you don’t mind stories that confuse and require more than one reading and if you don’t mind a bit of pornography, then this is a book well worth spending time with. You would think that 112 pages would be a quick read. Third and final warning: this is not a quick read.
I am giving this 4 stars after the first reading based on the energy and inventiveness of the writing. As I say, I will go back and re-read this soon to try to make a bit more sense of the overall stories (and, possibly, story). I really could not say at the moment whether that re-read will mean 5 stars or 2. The book is that original.
* In my defence, he didn't reply immediately and I worked out what was going on without outside intervention - it just took a while.
March 12, 2018
I'm not too proud to admit that some of this went over my head. Yet, I loved Šnajdr's approach of connecting stories and text fragments to read one after the other based on emotional standpoints rather than narrative ones. This made finding a path around the texts fun, but it also asks a lot from the reader to interpret the gaps and leaps from text to text.
In between the loosely interconnected texts, Rosie Šnajdr features standalone short stories. And boy, some of them are amazing. When Šnajdr hits her stride, she hits it hard. Möbius Strip is so beautifully crafted and left me wanting for a whole novel to read. And Postlewd, the final text in the collection, was a power demonstration by an author to watch. She's just playing with the reader's expectations and emotions at this point flexing her literary muscle.
In between the loosely interconnected texts, Rosie Šnajdr features standalone short stories. And boy, some of them are amazing. When Šnajdr hits her stride, she hits it hard. Möbius Strip is so beautifully crafted and left me wanting for a whole novel to read. And Postlewd, the final text in the collection, was a power demonstration by an author to watch. She's just playing with the reader's expectations and emotions at this point flexing her literary muscle.
October 17, 2018
Some typing.
July 5, 2019
“We’re all done here, fish face.”
—Rosie Šnajdr, “Nativity Play”
This book prioritizes experimentation of form above even the writing itself, which would be extremely vexing if the new techniques did not seem truly new. Not having read every book in existence, I cannot promise that this is true originality, but it was certainly a fresh experience in navigation for me. There was a distinct lack of traceable plot in the majority of the stories, however, which both served to annoy me incredibly as a reader (I don’t want to do THAT much work) and also to make the form much more clear as the centerpiece. Šnajdr plays with direction, with time, with a number of different characters experiencing situations, and never writes the same story twice, which is impressive in a short story collection, to be honest. Among the best in terms of this surprise was the “Choose Your Own Adventure Story,” which hollowed out the form, and replaced segments which can be clearly interpreted in a variety of linear ways with a collection of fragments, only a couple of which can be connected, and this only by a large amount of conjecture. “The Lost Property” was exciting in a literally multi-directional approach. “The Interrupted Human Remains Mr Christopher O’Rourke” may be my favorite example of the kind of story which makes a dramatic production out of its own destruction of form, if only because it had the least regard for the form it was intentionally destroying, and thus was more free. The first “Nativity Play” was almost reminiscent of the community storytelling style of Berry and Anderson, but did so in clever little fragments.
A few of the stories took a more traditional format, and followed through on the corresponding need for more plot to keep them going: “A to B” and “The Cake Woman” and “Document.” It was interesting to trace the Toms throughout the book.
I say all that but here is the reason for the rating and the bad taste left in my mouth: “Postlewd” is not to my taste, and I could not even stomach finishing it. Maybe it is good and transgressive and progressive and I am just not there yet. It did disappoint.
—Rosie Šnajdr, “Nativity Play”
This book prioritizes experimentation of form above even the writing itself, which would be extremely vexing if the new techniques did not seem truly new. Not having read every book in existence, I cannot promise that this is true originality, but it was certainly a fresh experience in navigation for me. There was a distinct lack of traceable plot in the majority of the stories, however, which both served to annoy me incredibly as a reader (I don’t want to do THAT much work) and also to make the form much more clear as the centerpiece. Šnajdr plays with direction, with time, with a number of different characters experiencing situations, and never writes the same story twice, which is impressive in a short story collection, to be honest. Among the best in terms of this surprise was the “Choose Your Own Adventure Story,” which hollowed out the form, and replaced segments which can be clearly interpreted in a variety of linear ways with a collection of fragments, only a couple of which can be connected, and this only by a large amount of conjecture. “The Lost Property” was exciting in a literally multi-directional approach. “The Interrupted Human Remains Mr Christopher O’Rourke” may be my favorite example of the kind of story which makes a dramatic production out of its own destruction of form, if only because it had the least regard for the form it was intentionally destroying, and thus was more free. The first “Nativity Play” was almost reminiscent of the community storytelling style of Berry and Anderson, but did so in clever little fragments.
A few of the stories took a more traditional format, and followed through on the corresponding need for more plot to keep them going: “A to B” and “The Cake Woman” and “Document.” It was interesting to trace the Toms throughout the book.
I say all that but here is the reason for the rating and the bad taste left in my mouth: “Postlewd” is not to my taste, and I could not even stomach finishing it. Maybe it is good and transgressive and progressive and I am just not there yet. It did disappoint.
January 19, 2021
Hmm, tough one. So much of this was beautifully written. Really wonderful. It plays with forms really ambitiously, some of it works for me, other parts don't. Think all the people who it doesn't resonate with are valid, and all the people who do get it are too.
P.S God the Choose Your Own Adventure Chapters made me nostalgic.
P.S God the Choose Your Own Adventure Chapters made me nostalgic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews