The Impossibly

The Impossibly by Laird Hunt, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2001, 2012 ISBN 1-56689-117-5      Reviewed by John Eberly 4/2012

The Impossibly by Laird Hunt was originally published ten years ago by Coffee House Press.  It has recently been re-released in a nifty trade paperback edition, and this edition is the one I will be reviewing.  After reading the book I e-mailed the author with a question and found out that sections of the book had been reshuffled.  Well written, non-linear fiction like this can stand the test of a re-shuffle!  The book begins (at least this time) with a discussion between the unnamed main character and his girlfriend over the word and the thing known as a stapler.  Obsessions with words, and the various things they represent, flow through the narrative, reminiscent of J.G. Ballard's Crash, in which the main characters obsess about all things surrounding car wrecks, especially ones involving the death of certain iconic celebrities.  But in The Impossibly, there is not so clear a focus, in fact, there is a lot that remains obscure throughout, for example, is this guy working for the mafia?  Is he a spy? Is he spying on himself?  There is peripheral action, and interesting set ups galore that evoke dark, nefarious deeds in which the man participates.  But it is not always clear what is happening, and to whom it is happening.  Does he have a head injury?  He sure gets hit on the head a lot. I wrote to the author not because I required explanations, rather, just the opposite. Seduced by the oblique way in which the story is presented,  I craved more loose ends!  Comparisons to Kafka aside, the style is challenging and unique.  You are won over by its obscurity and come to live comfortably inside its abundant charm.  The Impossibly is a compelling read, Mr. Hunt is a gifted writer, but if you like to be led along a plot by the hand in the usual way, prepare to be pulled through a dark literary noir tunnel.

Reviewer info:  John Eberly is a long-time patron of Hutchinson Public Library and the author of Al-Kimia, Sophia Perennis Press, Ghent, 2004.
Reviewer statement:  "I love all kinds of books, but especially modern and post-modern fiction."

The Conversions

THE CONVERSIONS By Harry Mathews, Dalkey Archive Press, Normal, 1997 
Reviewed by John Eberly
This novel begins with preparations for an elaborate race between worms (yes, I said worms!) in the luxurious apartments of eccentric Grent Wayl.  The winner takes home a curious prize, a ritual adze, covered in arcane figures and scenes that unravel in meaning as the novel progresses.  When Wayl suddenly dies, a different race is on to decipher the adze and answer questions about it in order to win his sizable estate.  Through a series of stories within stories that take him around the world, the main character seems to advance toward the prize, traversing the labyrinth of his own psyche along the way.  He is beset by doubts as to the nature of what trails he is following, the interesting characters met along the way, and the overwhelming feeling that he has been tricked and that the whole journey is based on a hoax.  In his first novel, originally published by Random House in 1962, Harry Mathews' elegant prose and delight in the construction of the chase carry the momentum of the tale.  There is a patchwork quality to the various stops the protagonist makes along the way, and in this you can almost see the author working behind the curtain even though we are told to pay him no attention.  In The Conversions, and several of his other of his novels, Mathews is clearly indebted to the French writer Raymond Roussel, who taught him that what happens between the covers of a book is just what happens between the covers of a book, in other words, that a novel can be appreciated on its own terms and not necessarily on how it relates to the outside world.  The novel is its own self-contained world, and whatever transpires through its storytelling supports its own logic, its own "reality."  This frees imagination to really do the work it intends from the outset, a work of fiction.  In the words of Hassan-i-Sabbah, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

Reviewer info:  John Eberly is a long-time patron of Hutchinson Public Library and the author of Al-Kimia, Sophia Perennis Press, Ghent, 2004.
Reviewer statement:  "I love all kinds of books, but especially modern and post-modern fiction."

Civil War, Zombies, and Steampunk

Title:                    Boneshaker
Author:               Cherie Priest
HPL Catalog:      F Priest

Synopsis:

[From the HPL Polaris Library Catalog]  In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest.  Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.  But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.  Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city.  Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes.  Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing - until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.  His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Why I like this novel:

This novel fits into the Steampunk genre of fiction.  It is an alternate history story, which I find to be generally thought-provoking and fun.  With this book, it’s mostly fun.  However, Priest has a great way with words and keeps the story rolling along.  As I read the book, I could see many of the scenes as movie scenes.  I liked the Civil War-era setting and the pretty good attention to accuracy and detail given to the technology of the day.  The machinery and other “fantastical” creations in this alternate-history world reminded me a lot of Jules Verne.  This book really would make a great movie, I think.  It has all the elements of a good action film - that is, "good action".  It has some elements of romance, some good twists, and it has zombies and larger-than-life hero/characters.  Oh, and a capable and determined female lead character who kicks butt.

Reviewer:  Gregg Wamsley, Hutchinson Public Library staff.