This absolutely perfect coming-of-age story contains a range of divergent elements that make it hard to classify. I see a new literary paradigm (what I call Divergism; a post about it was published on this blog on 1 March this year and there’s another one that went up on the blog on the 17th of this month) that this book emblematises. You have speculative elements, fantasy, romance, and crime that are all blended together in a hybrid that is both engaging and intelligent.
As for themes, this novel deals with such issues as #metoo, youth, mental health, inequality, and the environment. But it also takes a long, hard look at contemporary culture, especially as it exists on social media.
There is a credible protagonist and there is a satisfying denouement. There is even, as in gothic fiction, a chase. It seems to have everything you can imagine and it is unbelievably good fun to read.
Samantha is a 25-year-old postgraduate student at a fictional North American college (what is called in the British system a university) studying writing. Naturally, there are strong metafictional elements in the book but its narrow scope belies the breadth of the author’s vision. The plot is intricate and the poetics that fill out the spaces between events are, like the language used for the novel, delicate, flexible, and full of nuance and subtlety.
Samantha initially doesn’t like a group of four women in one of her classes who all call each other “Bunny” and who are from wealthy backgrounds. She talks about them with her friend Ava one day when there is an outdoor event on at the college. And while things change and relations between the young women adapt over time always the question of authenticity arises.
Interpersonal relations supply material for much of the novel’s forward movement and while the story in its different phases evokes plenty of emotions (it made me nostalgic for my own youth) it’s hard to pin down exactly what the book is about. I felt that, apart from running a critique of the narcissism and banality of contemporary internet culture, the novel examines how, ultimately, we are alone in the world. It also looks at how we construct reality to suit our own purposes despite the efforts of others to circumscribe our conduct with their own behaviour.
Using just over a dozen settings – a classroom, the home of a lecturer, another lecturer’s office, a college hallway, a college hall, a college lawn, the home of a friend, the home of another friend, Samantha’s own apartment, a busstop, the interior of a bus, the interior of a car, a seat by a pond, a street, a restaurant – the author creates vivid portraits of characters with which to populate her narrative. In addition to crystalline dialogue, how people feel and what they see (or think they see) contrive to give the reader access to a credible world in which to immerse his or her imagination. It’s a suspenseful ride with magic and danger, hope and sadness, fear and love. I really can’t adequately express how good this novel is, it contains worlds.
This book was brought out by a British company I had never heard of before, a circumstance which shows the importance of supporting independent publishers. Kudos to Head of Zeus for seeing the talent in this Canadian author’s work.
As for themes, this novel deals with such issues as #metoo, youth, mental health, inequality, and the environment. But it also takes a long, hard look at contemporary culture, especially as it exists on social media.
There is a credible protagonist and there is a satisfying denouement. There is even, as in gothic fiction, a chase. It seems to have everything you can imagine and it is unbelievably good fun to read.
Samantha is a 25-year-old postgraduate student at a fictional North American college (what is called in the British system a university) studying writing. Naturally, there are strong metafictional elements in the book but its narrow scope belies the breadth of the author’s vision. The plot is intricate and the poetics that fill out the spaces between events are, like the language used for the novel, delicate, flexible, and full of nuance and subtlety.
Samantha initially doesn’t like a group of four women in one of her classes who all call each other “Bunny” and who are from wealthy backgrounds. She talks about them with her friend Ava one day when there is an outdoor event on at the college. And while things change and relations between the young women adapt over time always the question of authenticity arises.
Interpersonal relations supply material for much of the novel’s forward movement and while the story in its different phases evokes plenty of emotions (it made me nostalgic for my own youth) it’s hard to pin down exactly what the book is about. I felt that, apart from running a critique of the narcissism and banality of contemporary internet culture, the novel examines how, ultimately, we are alone in the world. It also looks at how we construct reality to suit our own purposes despite the efforts of others to circumscribe our conduct with their own behaviour.
Using just over a dozen settings – a classroom, the home of a lecturer, another lecturer’s office, a college hallway, a college hall, a college lawn, the home of a friend, the home of another friend, Samantha’s own apartment, a busstop, the interior of a bus, the interior of a car, a seat by a pond, a street, a restaurant – the author creates vivid portraits of characters with which to populate her narrative. In addition to crystalline dialogue, how people feel and what they see (or think they see) contrive to give the reader access to a credible world in which to immerse his or her imagination. It’s a suspenseful ride with magic and danger, hope and sadness, fear and love. I really can’t adequately express how good this novel is, it contains worlds.
This book was brought out by a British company I had never heard of before, a circumstance which shows the importance of supporting independent publishers. Kudos to Head of Zeus for seeing the talent in this Canadian author’s work.
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