[Duel Review] Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles - Ron Currie Jr.

In this tour de force of imagination, Ron Currie asks why literal veracity means more to us than deeper truths, creating yet again a genre-bending novel that will at once dazzle, move, and provoke.

The protagonist of Ron Currie, Jr.’s new novel has a problem­—or rather, several of them. He’s a writer whose latest book was destroyed in a fire. He’s mourning the death of his father, and has been in love with the same woman since grade school, a woman whose beauty and allure is matched only by her talent for eluding him. Worst of all, he’s not even his own man, but rather an amalgam of fact and fiction from Ron Currie’s own life. When Currie the character exiles himself to a small Caribbean island to write a new book about the woman he loves, he eventually decides to fake his death, which turns out to be the best career move he’s ever made. But fame and fortune come with a price, and Currie learns that in a time of twenty-four-hour news cycles, reality TV, and celebrity Twitter feeds, the one thing the world will not forgive is having been told a deeply satisfying lie.

What kind of distinction could, or should, be drawn between Currie the author and Currie the character?  Or between the book you hold in your hands and the novel embedded in it? Whatever the answers, Currie, an inventive writer always eager to test the boundaries of storytelling in provocative ways, has essential things to impart along the way about heartbreak, reality, grief, deceit, human frailty, and blinding love.

Colin picked this month's book but it was totally fine with me. He'd gotten me to read another book by Currie called Everything Matters! about a year earlier and I had loved it so it was no trouble to get me to agree to read another book by Currie.

One of the things you first notice about Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is that it's written in a very unique style. Each page is a complete thought or anecdote. Sometimes that's one paragraph. Sometimes that's three pages. Because of this way of writing, it's both easy to start reading and a quicker read than normal. At first I worried that this style would make it hard for me to connect to the story, since there was less story and less narrative connection than you would normally have. Now that I've finished, though, I can't really imagine the story told through a more regular means. It works in snatches and adds some depth that you wouldn't be able to get with a linear narrative.

That's another thing: this story is completely nonlinear. Not that you can't figure out a timeline as you're reading but it does get a bit confusing in the beginning. Currie skips around from his life with Emma, his life on a tropical island, the last few months with his dad and his slightly-obsessive thoughts on what he calls 'The Singularity.' All the stories are compelling and his observations in some areas inform different thoughts. I really enjoyed this aspect.

About two thirds of the way into the book, the novel takes a turn towards where it was headed all the time. This is the only thing that I didn't really like. The last forty or so pages, in my opinion, are the best and the most interesting. I really wish that there were more to this. His time back in the states and dealing with what had happened while he was gone was my favorite part and I feel like he didn't give enough time to this. I see why it's short, since the audience within the narrative would arguably already know all this but I do wish I could have seen more.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Emma. I always have a bit of an issue with books about men with obsessive love. I just feel uncomfortable for the woman involved, normally and this wasn't any different. I think the book manages to be more than this but there was still a tad of that creepy obsessive love that never sits right with me. I think it was handled well in the end but for the first two thirds of the book? Tad creepy, Currie.

Overall, though, the book was really good. I think I still prefer Everything Matters! on storyline alone but this was no bad book by a long shot. I look forward to reading more by Currie in the future.

This is a duel book review with Colin. I will post a link to Colin's post as soon as he puts it up. :)

[Duel Review] If on a winter's night a traveller - Italo Calvino

Okay, I picked the book for this month's duel review. I had been glancing at it in Waterstones for a few weeks beforehand as it sat on the two for one table and had been intrigued. During my friends and my "we finished our dissertation so let's buy all the books!" afternoon, I gave in to temptation and picked up a copy. As well as the back cover making it sound quite interesting, my friend Lizzy's coworker had been raving about it to her the weekend before so it seemed a good buy.

To be quite honest, I'm not entirely sure how to describe the novel. It is definitely nothing you've ever read before. I think I may just put the back cover blurb: 

You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But there is a printer's error in your copy. You take it back to the shop and get a replacement. But the replacement seems to be a totally different story. You try to track down the original book you were reading but end up with a different narrative again. This remarkable novel leads you through many different books including a detective adventure, a romance, a satire, an erotic story, a diary and a quest. But the hero of them all is you, the reader.

I guess, at first glance, it kind of sounds like a very intense 'Choose Your Own Adventure' novel. The Reader is the main character, although, to be fair, there are instances where you realize that the author is aware of the difference between The Reader and the reader. Which shows you just how incredibly meta this novel is. 

Although there is a semblance of plot about forged books and sneaky translators, this book, more than anything, is a treatise on books, on reading and writing. It makes you think about what a book means to you and what the written word means in general. It investigates what the point of novels are and what a writer must do to be a writer and if he does not do these things, doesn't that still make him a writer? 

One thing that you will either love or hate about the book is the format. Every other chapter follows the exploits of The Reader and what he does in search of the continuation of his book. Meanwhile, the chapters in-between are the beginnings of the novels that he is attempting to read. Each one is very different, even if they sometimes explore the same things. On the one hand, they seem out of place at times but on the other hand, they really do showcase the talent of Calvino as a writer. I really enjoyed each new beginning and I think it really helps the reader identify with The Reader. When you finish each snippet, you really are curious how it would continue. It also shows you what the importance of a great set up is and how (as stated towards the end of the novel) perhaps that anticipation, the small beginning that sets the reader up, is something that can never be lived up to, no matter how good the following subject matter is.

I can't say that I particularly liked the actual plot of the novel, as I found it a bit too heavy handed and took away from some of the more interesting passages about reading in general. Even though I usually despise second person, I think it was used incredibly effectively in this book. 

I do feel that this book was probably much more revelatory in the period it was published in (the early eighties), mainly because being meta has become more mainstream, with social media breaking down the wall between reader and author and media in general becoming more interested in exploring structure through its own medium (I'm thinking Community here). However, it still packs quite a punch and gives the reader a lot to think about.

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who considers themselves "a reader" or "a writer." It has a lot to say on both topics and will genuinely  make you think. It's an inventive novel and well worth your time.

This is my review for If on a winter's night a traveller. Here is a link to Colin's review.