So…I’ve recently finished reading this a few days ago, and it’s one of those books that tempt me to read it a second time.
This isn’t a book review; I just wanted to express how much I loved it. I am convinced that Tom McCarthy is a genius. I mean, the story is of a boy named Serge Carrefax, his childhood and his life afterwards. It’s a good story, but what I’m crazy about is the author’s use of language, the letters themselves. The writing does things to the reader without the reader realizing. For example, when Serge is in that museum with the record playing, there is a paragraph where you just can’t read straight. What I mean is…you know when you’re reading a book, and you’re supposed to read one line and move on to the line after it for it to be coherent? This part was quoting the words coming out of a gramophone. I just couldn’t locate myself in the paragraph and I kept jumbling up the lines and thought I was going nuts… Then I realized that, within the story, the needle on the gramophone was stuck and it was skipping words and repeating things. Maybe the lines just happened to be printed that way, but I’m pretty sure the writer knew what he was doing. This is a very small example of the intricate poetry you will find in this book. The ending was a storm of words; you are not sure what each part means or even if it makes sense or not, but you are left with a strong impression of chaos and psychological confusion. My hat is off.
Published last year, definitely one of my top 3 contemporary novels.
