It looks ok on my phone, so i'll not mess about trying to change it.
TM Wright was one of the leading proponents of quiet horror. He didn't use endless gore or violence in his stories, he created an atmosphere of... I'm not quiete sure. It's not, strictly speaking, dread, it's something more insinuous than that. His writing unsettles you and can make you doubt the reality around you.
This is one of his later works, published by PS Publishing. That creepy looking cover perfectly fits the story inside.
The title page describes it as "A memoir of the newly non-corporeal" and that's as good a clue to the story as you can have.
The unlikelily named Happy Farmer is existing inside a big house, along with other shapes and shades that ocasionally visit. Nearby there is a lake, and on that lake there is the Blue Canoe of the title. He uses it to visit a hill on the other side of the lake where there's an empty village or hamlet. He remembers his past loves who may or may not exist and visits a town named after the lake for his breakfast.
There's not really much obvious story to this book. The reader has to do a lot of the heavy lifting for him/herself to work out what, if anything, is happening or has happened. It's all told in random bursts of stream of consciousness with at least a half a dozen different threads to the story all being told simultaneously.
The sections are separated by roman numerals that become something other than roman numerals as the book draws on. Chapter headings are almost randomly allocated. Towards the end we suddenly find chapter 1 which is a whole new narrative thread again, but which seems to tie some of the more disparate threads together. Or maybe it doesn't. I don't know.
If the afterlife really is like this, it's a horrible concept and that's where this qualifies in the genre.
The piecemeal storytelling keeps you off balance and wary all the time you're reading it. You never quite know what is or isn't real inside this mini universe Wright has created.
It deserves to be read in as few sittings as is possible. that way it flows much better than just reading 5 pages at a time. It starts to make sense (almost) when you devote some time to this book. A good long reading session enables you to truly feel the flow and power of his writing.
There's a very wry and dry sense of humour running through it. It's never laugh out loud funny, but I found myself grinning, although sometimes I wasn't sure why.
It's not a book I think everyone would love. It's very different to a regular narrative. It's one I will probably reread just to see if I can figure it out properly next time.
For me, Wright's prose has always been addictive. He writes smoothly and hypnotically. Regardless of the storyline, his prose is an experience all of its own. this book is no exception. The imagery is hallucinatory. there are nuggets of real wisdom in there, and a lot of what the hell is going on?
If you like a book that's a challenge as well as an easy read, this will do that for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment