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The Thing Is
A novel, a confession, a poem, an autofiction, a commonplace book, a prose poem, The Thing Is will provide a new twist on the continuing adaptability of the form that we call the novel.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published August 20, 2020
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 13, 2020
"Kairos - the right moment."
I am not going to lie. I am disappointed. I knew this was going to bring something different to the table and it totally did, except for the fact that this is totally not a book that can be read at one go. I am halfway through the book and the thoughts or whatever the pieces are supposed to be, they all blended in together and had nothing to separate a piece from another. If it did, maybe that would have helped me to know that this is where a certain piece stops. I would be halfway through the next entirely different, yet, similar piece and then, I would realise that and I would end up feeling disoriented and/or disconnected because it just wasn't a good, fluid transition. And to think it all came down to separators. Something to mark it as a different piece or instance.
This book had every potential to be a delightful experience and a thought-provoking one at that but it just failed to deliver what it was meant to. I have never DNFed reading a book but I couldn't bear it anymore with this so DNFed at 52%. It just became too much when some pieces affected me and I needed to process them but the entire thing, it just ruined my experience with this book.
Such a pity. This was one of my anticipated arc reads. Such a pity. I can only hope for that one day when I could be able to go through with this book but today is not that day. Nor is any day, anytime soon.
Apart from that, I really ADORED the general idea behind this book and man, it's either 2020 or it's just me, but this is tearing me up for not being able to finish this book.
Whatever pieces I connected with and didn't feel disconnected from when it suddenly broke off, they were just so thoughtfully and poetically put. As I said earlier, such a pity.
Potter seems to a gifted writer and I would totally listen to him talk for hours. Days, even. Because some are just so brilliantly written and captured that it is normal for one to want to consume whatever brews inside that mind. I will absolutely be revisiting this work, but for now, I just have to let this go.
At this moment, this was not for me. I am pretty sure if you are someone who likes consuming books in bits and pieces, you would totally like this. It's not like, "I don't recommend this book, at all" or "I'll leave you to decide" because this is really a nice book but yes, I think, I'll just leave you to decide for this one.
Rating: 1.25/5
Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an temporary e-arc.The Thing Is contains prose, poems, prose-poetry, micro-fiction, quotes and scientific/poetical/philosophical insights about the universe and life.
I am not going to lie. I am disappointed. I knew this was going to bring something different to the table and it totally did, except for the fact that this is totally not a book that can be read at one go. I am halfway through the book and the thoughts or whatever the pieces are supposed to be, they all blended in together and had nothing to separate a piece from another. If it did, maybe that would have helped me to know that this is where a certain piece stops. I would be halfway through the next entirely different, yet, similar piece and then, I would realise that and I would end up feeling disoriented and/or disconnected because it just wasn't a good, fluid transition. And to think it all came down to separators. Something to mark it as a different piece or instance.
This book had every potential to be a delightful experience and a thought-provoking one at that but it just failed to deliver what it was meant to. I have never DNFed reading a book but I couldn't bear it anymore with this so DNFed at 52%. It just became too much when some pieces affected me and I needed to process them but the entire thing, it just ruined my experience with this book.
Such a pity. This was one of my anticipated arc reads. Such a pity. I can only hope for that one day when I could be able to go through with this book but today is not that day. Nor is any day, anytime soon.
Apart from that, I really ADORED the general idea behind this book and man, it's either 2020 or it's just me, but this is tearing me up for not being able to finish this book.
Whatever pieces I connected with and didn't feel disconnected from when it suddenly broke off, they were just so thoughtfully and poetically put. As I said earlier, such a pity.
Potter seems to a gifted writer and I would totally listen to him talk for hours. Days, even. Because some are just so brilliantly written and captured that it is normal for one to want to consume whatever brews inside that mind. I will absolutely be revisiting this work, but for now, I just have to let this go.
At this moment, this was not for me. I am pretty sure if you are someone who likes consuming books in bits and pieces, you would totally like this. It's not like, "I don't recommend this book, at all" or "I'll leave you to decide" because this is really a nice book but yes, I think, I'll just leave you to decide for this one.
Rating: 1.25/5
April 18, 2024
More commonplace book than novel, this is a collection of fragments that were often interesting but seemingly without any common thread. More frustrating than fun. More annoying than enjoyable. More confusing than enlightening. Funny, though.
August 13, 2021
Fragmentary paragraphs of thought and observation on the world and human behaviour. Best taken slowly and in small doses to ponder the words..
May 3, 2022
Oh the joys of shelving books ! Probably wouldn't have known about this if I wasn't a bookseller. Loved it - philosophical, funny, poetic, a splendid challenging of the 'novel' form.
📚❤📚❤📚
📚❤📚❤📚
November 13, 2022
You read and wait and wait and read for the fragments to come together in a meaningful whole. Alas, it does not happen.
January 4, 2026
Right from the second page, I knew that this would be a favourite of mine. Couldn't quite put my finger on why I felt compelled to give this book a go, but I'm so glad that I did. There is no doubt that I will reach for this book again, and I will certainly miss the satiating experience of reading it for the first time. But that did not stop me from speed reading this book - it is certainly one you will want to highlight, annotate, and reread.
This style may not be everyone's cup of tea - I'd say if you enjoy direct explanations or perhaps have not spent time ruminating on similar themes, this book may not be for you. However, I found this book soooo fun to read - I found myself constantly pausing, flabbergasted at seeing my own contemplations on paper, and to savour the remaining chapters.
Potter somehow captures the essence of one’s own stream of consciousness, tackling the juxtaposition between duality and non-duality, time and eternity. He incites a flurry of emotions - of existentialism and egoism - as one would feel when trying to make sense of the nuance of existence.
On a personal note, reading this was like looking into a window of my soul and own past thoughts, an open journal that felt somewhat nostalgic with surprisingly entertaining pacing - each prose ponders a somewhat striking yet fluid lattice of concepts that I found so fresh and engaging. It felt as though I was reading an expository piece, unearthing and exploring post ego death rumination, without the guide of a narrating teacher to keep one on track.
“Falling through time and finding yourself in eternity.”
This book was an enigma of a piece to start the year with - not quite a poem, novel or confession but defiantly a thought provoking journey so evocatively compiled for one to piece together like a puzzle.
This style may not be everyone's cup of tea - I'd say if you enjoy direct explanations or perhaps have not spent time ruminating on similar themes, this book may not be for you. However, I found this book soooo fun to read - I found myself constantly pausing, flabbergasted at seeing my own contemplations on paper, and to savour the remaining chapters.
Potter somehow captures the essence of one’s own stream of consciousness, tackling the juxtaposition between duality and non-duality, time and eternity. He incites a flurry of emotions - of existentialism and egoism - as one would feel when trying to make sense of the nuance of existence.
On a personal note, reading this was like looking into a window of my soul and own past thoughts, an open journal that felt somewhat nostalgic with surprisingly entertaining pacing - each prose ponders a somewhat striking yet fluid lattice of concepts that I found so fresh and engaging. It felt as though I was reading an expository piece, unearthing and exploring post ego death rumination, without the guide of a narrating teacher to keep one on track.
“Falling through time and finding yourself in eternity.”
This book was an enigma of a piece to start the year with - not quite a poem, novel or confession but defiantly a thought provoking journey so evocatively compiled for one to piece together like a puzzle.
June 23, 2025
This book was a fascinating read. Potter took quotes from a monumentally wide range of sources and treated them as historical fragments, with reflections on a set of between 1 and 10 making up each of the 13 chapters. I loved it. The chapters were not essays, they were not short stories, they did not tie all of the fragments together explicitly, but they told a story and they offered a window into humanity from the inside and the outside.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews