Currently reading
Pale Fire: A Poem in Four Cantos by John Shade
Pale Fire
Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground New Edition
Under Stones
The Erotic Potential of My Wife
A Corner of White
Winter's Bone
Progress:
99 %
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
The Beetle
Wreck This Journal
This is a stunningly good book that mixes visceral and disturbing psychological landscapes with an extremely intelligent, almost farcical story structure. I have never read anything quite like it.The two main characters (and there really are only two characters in this rather short book) are both acutely damaged from childhood trauma and abuse. Each sees the world in an entirely different way, and each perceives the other's actions through a lens of their own psychological damage. This leads to an almost comical and certainly suspenseful, continual escalation of events that you feel can only ever end in disaster. The way "The Other Murakami" writes about the effects of abuse is detailed, specific, unflinching, matter-of-fact and yet extremely visceral. Murakami gives the reader a sense of the utter physicality of mental health issues. There's a recognition that it's not just a matter of having unhealthy thoughts, but that these issues have physical elements: sweating and dizziness, the sound of blood rushing in ears...... I have the strong feeling that only someone who has been through some extreme trauma themselves could have written this. It's an uncomfortable feeling, but that's a large part of what gives this book such impact.It's a short book, it's not heavy-going, and it's brilliant. What are you waiting for?
