This was one of the first books that taught me about subtext. Who is Alden Weer? Why does his memory work the way it does, going from room to room, calling up vignettes from the past? What is he not saying, in each of the stories he tells? What happens to the main character?
It really took five reads to pick out the threads and figure out that the end of one chapter is referenced only by omission in the next, that the planted oak tree is a gift to Alden and what happened when it fell, what name Vi picked out for the frozen orange juice blend, and how the short story "Changling" is a model for "Peace" in the ways that we are strangers to our own childhood.
Reviews and Comments
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Will Sargent rated I Am a Strange Loop: 5 stars
I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter
What do we mean when we say "I"? Can thought arise out of matter? Can a self, a soul, a …
Will Sargent rated In search of stupidity: 4 stars
In search of stupidity by Merrill R. Chapman, Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman
A humorous book that takes a look at some of the most influential marketing and business philosophies since the 1980s …
Will Sargent rated Queen & Country: 5 stars
Will Sargent reviewed Peace by Gene Wolfe
From back cover:
PEACE is the life story of Alden Dennis Weer, an eccentric old …
Review of 'Peace' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Will Sargent rated 1984: 5 stars
1984 by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist …
Will Sargent rated Dark Alliance: 5 stars
Dark Alliance by Gary Webb
In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose …
Will Sargent rated Beyond Software Architecture: 4 stars
Beyond Software Architecture by Luke Hohmann
xxviii, 314 p. ; 24 cm
Will Sargent rated There Are Doors: 4 stars
There Are Doors by Gene Wolfe
There Are Doors is the story of a man who falls in love with a goddess from an alternate universe. …
Will Sargent rated The Confusion, Part I: 4 stars
Will Sargent rated Fledgling: 4 stars
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
Shori is a mystery. Found alone in the woods, she appears to be a little black girl with traumatic amnesia …
Will Sargent rated Against a Dark Background: 5 stars
Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks
Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the …
Will Sargent rated Dying Inside: 5 stars
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
From the back cover:
David Selig is outwardly unimpressive. His early promise as a student and scholar is unrealised. He …
Will Sargent rated The Phoenix Exultant: 4 stars
Will Sargent rated Idoru: 3 stars
Idoru by William Gibson
From first page Berkley paperback September 1997:
21st century Tokyo, after the millennial quake. Is something different here, in the …