IdleRich
IdleRich
Right, I just read this behemoth this week and I'd be interested in the thoughts of anyone else who has read it. It's a bizarre, possibly circular, novel where the single-shoed main character - known as the kid - cannot remember his own name and suffers from dyschronic episodes as a result of which he appears to lose chunks of time - he also seems to have difficulty distinguishing between dreams and waking. As well as this it is often implied that going by his birth date he ought to be much older than his stated twenty-seven years and yet he in fact appears much younger.
The novel is set in a fictional American city that has suffered an unspecified event leaving it covered permanently by cloud; without radio links and forgotten by the rest of the country Bellona is filled with characters who (mainly) inexplicably choose to remain or even enter the city. No records of dates are kept in the city and people take the day of the week from the Bellona Times which is printed with random dates by an eccentric semi-recluse who lives in a gated house with the upper crust types who have hung stayed behind. On top of this there is the fact that the city seems to change so that things are in different places and there are fires that never go out and supplies of tinned goods seem to be inexhaustible.
The kid constantly fills a found notebook with poetry reading from time to time from the notes which are already in the book and which often turn out to describe (roughly) events which occur later on. For the last chapter the viewpoint appears to switch so you are being narrated to from the notebook - it is not totally clear whether what happens now is consistent with the events have already being described. Also the kid has a seemingly magic weapon always finds its way onto his arm when he needs it despite him having no memory of attaching it. Oh yes, and he keeps seeing people's eyes become totally red, an event which, although never really explained (or is it?), always terrifies him. Plus another moon appears in the sky and one day there is a huge sun which scares the shit out of everyone.
The book is very long and rather low key so that despite the amount of stuff that happens there is lots more time when nothing much is going on. I think that this is rather effective and it's only at the end when you realise quite how much strangeness has passed. The main feeling you are left with is how much of the book has described the main character and his friends sitting down, talking bollocks and engaging in unnecessarily long and boring sex scenes.
Despite enjoying most of the book a lot I basically don't feel that I understood it that well and I'd be grateful to anyone who could help me at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhalgren
The novel is set in a fictional American city that has suffered an unspecified event leaving it covered permanently by cloud; without radio links and forgotten by the rest of the country Bellona is filled with characters who (mainly) inexplicably choose to remain or even enter the city. No records of dates are kept in the city and people take the day of the week from the Bellona Times which is printed with random dates by an eccentric semi-recluse who lives in a gated house with the upper crust types who have hung stayed behind. On top of this there is the fact that the city seems to change so that things are in different places and there are fires that never go out and supplies of tinned goods seem to be inexhaustible.
The kid constantly fills a found notebook with poetry reading from time to time from the notes which are already in the book and which often turn out to describe (roughly) events which occur later on. For the last chapter the viewpoint appears to switch so you are being narrated to from the notebook - it is not totally clear whether what happens now is consistent with the events have already being described. Also the kid has a seemingly magic weapon always finds its way onto his arm when he needs it despite him having no memory of attaching it. Oh yes, and he keeps seeing people's eyes become totally red, an event which, although never really explained (or is it?), always terrifies him. Plus another moon appears in the sky and one day there is a huge sun which scares the shit out of everyone.
The book is very long and rather low key so that despite the amount of stuff that happens there is lots more time when nothing much is going on. I think that this is rather effective and it's only at the end when you realise quite how much strangeness has passed. The main feeling you are left with is how much of the book has described the main character and his friends sitting down, talking bollocks and engaging in unnecessarily long and boring sex scenes.
Despite enjoying most of the book a lot I basically don't feel that I understood it that well and I'd be grateful to anyone who could help me at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhalgren