Mason > Recent Status Updates

The Ophelia reference now has me thinking about Hamlet with regards to this novel. "To be or not to be?" may well be the question of Pale Fire.

The more I read, the more I realize just how clever that opening couplet is.

I don't even know how to interpret any of this. I'm starting to think that Kinbote and Shade are not the same person. Then again, Botkin-is-Kinbote feels too obvious. I don't even know man

This book is so genius I could cry. Between this and House of Leaves, maybe my favourite thing in literature is the ambiguity of who is writing what.

The ending snuck up on me. I like what Chabon is doing here - it feels like the natural conclusion of his method of navigating the characters' histories. The book ends somewhere, but their lives don't. I only wish that Sammy's choice wasn't so sudden, it feels almost uncharacteristic. Maybe I'm just bitter that the book is over.

These past 100 pages have been gutwrenching to the point where I had to put the book down for a few minutes. Real page-turner, this one is. It's been a 700-page wide hole in my bookshelf for years, and now that I've actually dug into it I'm sad that it's not 4000 pages. I can't remember the last time I've loved a book so much based largely on character and narrative.

Randomly continuing this book after 4 years was a good choice, apparently. Sometimes a fun and digestible read is just what the doctor ordered. I like the style of narration here, omniscience extending to the characters' thoughts while also vaguely alluding to happenings of the future - gives the narrative a historiographic tinge, fictional as it may be.

Getting back to this after a few years. Took a while but I'm enjoying it, helps that Joe is a very endearing character. Chabon's prose is very smooth and digestible, makes for a fun read. There's little tidbits of greatness, and the surrounding passages are decent enough as well.

Properly grotesque imagery. Real trip of a read.

I'm not sure about some of these character choices, and the villains are relatively uninteresting. Otherwise this is on par with the previous Slough House volumes, pure delight condensed into literary form, even with its increasing edge of bleakness.

Good read. I know the gist of most of these stories but this is peppered with interesting anecdotes I was unfamiliar with. Good prose too.

(Spoilers)
Interesting sense of space with Yvonne and Gregory's deaths. For Yvonne, the garden and all its biblical connotations are burning, but it is as if she's been lifted to the heavens at the end. Gregory, for all his visions of scaling the volcano, is tossed into a ravine. It's there that you really notice the meaning of the title. The ending may be given away early but the description is very unsettling.

Lowry's writing is so immersive - his Mexico is so distinctive and tangible, it feels like stepping into the country every time I open the book, and into the memories of Geoff/Hugh/Yvonne/Jacques. I find the Consul's perspective often very troubling - this is the sort of book that makes you never want to pick up a drink again.

This is more of a note to myself, but recently I've been hankering for a new 5 star read, and figured I'd devote some time to searching for one, instead of grabbing the first thing I see off my bookshelf. This is the first one I've selected that I think might have a shot, and I am quite liking it so far. We'll see how long it takes to find that coveted 5-er :)

Interesting ideas delivered through very insipid language

Really good

I love the fluidity in Erickson's narration, how the prose dances through each character's life like flowing water. The vignettes, per se, are so human and poignant. I could keep reading this forever.

"He had eyes of a blue that vanishes with infancy only to return a lifetime later with old age; in all the years between, the blue journeys to some unknown place, presumed dead and, upon homecoming, is received with some resentment as it lays out a treasure of sights the eyes can never understand."

Has not gripped me in the same manner as Days Between Stations and the few pages I've read of Arc D'x. And yet, a handsomely written and well-realized book. I adore Erickson's brand of surrealism.

Slow going, but the book is very good.

I love the method of narration, and it's a great testament to the novel's quality that the tidbits of random lives we get are so profound. Many artists play with the idea of community and storytelling but it's the thoughtfulness deployed here which makes it resonate so. I had to pause for a moment, strangely affected by the death of a character I'd known for three sentences.

Main character is discomfitingly similar to myself. Fascinating read so far.

Sensational. Has me hanging on each word. To think that I barely cared for horses 400 pages ago - some of Danielewski's descriptions have nearly moved me to tears. Also, the framing of the narrative is ingenious.

jesus