Weird Fiction discussion

So, what are your thoughts about the plot of this novel? Is it working for you so for, or not? Let's start our in depth discussion as we make our way into this book, perhaps the second week or so of January?

I am about forty pages in and finding this book to be very interesting. So far the author is hiding his cards well. I have little idea what this book is ultimately going to be about.

The most interesting feature so far to me is the description of the library in Turin where it seems most of the trouble is going to center. In this library people are sharing their most candid thoughts about pivotal moments in their lives and doing so behind a veil of secrecy. This book was written in 1970s Turin, but this century we in the U.S. started a library that sounds a lot like this one. It's on National Public Radio and called StoryCorps: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510200/s.... I imagine as the book proceeds, differences between Turin's library and StoryCorps will manifest, but so far I am amazed the extent to which they are the same thing.

The Twenty Days of Turin has been compared to the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Pynchon. I agree with the former but not with the latter. The Twenty Days of Turin is a cosmic horror novel. Based of what I've read by Pynchon--I'm a fan--I don't see the comparison.

I submit that The Twenty Days of Turin is like The X Files with its use of Fortean/paranormal phenomenon. In the novel, there is stuff about Electronic voice phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...

Also, the novel has old but nevertheless effective tropes such as being followed.

Sounds like an amazing read! Adding to my list. Of course, naturally,. I read it as the twenty days of Durin, and I am partial to dwarfs - and for sure, their libraries, such as they are, can be quite a rare find and it is with that understanding that I read all your reviews and thoughts. Surely, the trouble of getting to the center has to do with some ruined passage ways or orc ambushes? But something kept puzzling me about all of this. Oh. Oh. Turin is not... oh. I see.

I finished the book today and must admit to not feeling better off for the experience. My review, which like most contain light spoilers, is here if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Dan wrote: "I finished the book today and must admit to not feeling better off for the experience. My review, which like most contain light spoilers, is here if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/rev..."
ha. Then I will hold off reading this one. I don't mind postmodern if it's clever. But I got about a hundred books on the to-read list...

I seem to be in the minority for not liking it. I read the other reviews closely to see if they were getting more out of the book than I was, but I don't think those who were giving it positive reviews were seeing things I wasn't. It seems they just ignored the long digressions in order to appreciate the plot elements that were there.

I also realize now from reading the other reviews that the book was basically an allegory for the totalitarianism that overtook Italy under Mussolini. Also, in the 1970s, there were domestic terrorists in Italy killing people and setting off bombs to try to affect politics. People were sort of cowed by both events and tried not to analyze them too much. Thus there was no logical explanation. That might work when explaining politics, but it didn't work (for me) as an allegory for what I took to be a standard story plot.

Most people were less demanding of the work than me and that made them better able to appreciate it perhaps.