Rant about Almost Nowhere
I have just finished Almost Nowhere.
It was a trip.
Scant minutes after pitting it down, I feel the giddiness of walking out of the movie theatre, having been subjected to the visions of another, enjoying being compelled while the suspense of disbelief remained intact.
There will be time yet for a sober reflection, to think of ways a work could be improved, or perhaps in sheer egoism, more tailored to one's own taste. This is not that hour.
The book has one of the most infectious characters I have had the pleasure to read. He is poison to the book's characters, granting them his style and thoughts. He is poison to the reader, somehow in much the same way.
I have oft sought to communicate by granting a thesis, and then shaving away at the little pieces of possible misunderstandings, until only a unified edifice of meaning could be presented to the target.
Almost Nowhere's man of words strives for something different. To cast a thousand stones upon the waters, and divine from the waves the mind of the speaker. To utter arrays of metaphors, emitting meaning from the their constructive interference. It is excessive, self indulgent, and oh so much fun, to read and to be infected with.
No one holds the idiot ball. Some characters may seem like idiots, have strange motivations or psychology, or not have necessarily coherent goals. But they strive as people do, and don't act in a visibly foolish (or prescient way) to merely further the plot.
And everyone deserves to thrive. Or should thrive. Should be given a chance to live life as they wished, away from their present terrible circumstances. There are no villains to point fingers at.