3 out of 4 stars
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There and Back There Again
By Andrew Alsup
I shall start my review with the statement that it is the most bizarre book I have ever read! I will try to do my best my overall reading experience putting into thoughts and arranging them in some order. I must admit though, that this review is based only on my personal reflections, not on my experience as a reader or reviewer. I simply cannot apply it for reviewing this book. My opinion shouldn’t, by no means, discourage anyone to read it. That is not my aim. I just want to express my personal impression of the book and how it has changed when I have finished reading it.
I will start with a comment on the title – There And Back There Again – and the cover of the book. The appearance of it is an allusion to the fictional world that we all know or at least have heard of – the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The leather-like book cover, the Elvish-style letters, and words of the book title give a puzzling first impression with a clear hint to The Hobbit. But even after reading the whole book I cannot say, how exactly it relates to The Hobbit, except the fact that the protagonist lives in his inner world of its own laws and principals, which is completely different from our reality and not quite clear to the reader.
The book consists of two parts that are hardly related to each other. The first part of the book is more like an open diary about violation of Andy’s privacy. It’s like a twisted mirror of the reality. The second part is a bonus, as it is called suggesting that it might have little to do with the first part. It is a set of very short articles (some of them written by others) on different topics, like the analysis of E. A. Poe’s poem or essays on Andy’s pets. The order of chapters, even of the two parts of the book, does not seem important at all.
It is not clear throughout the whole book, who is speaking on behalf of the protagonist Andy. It is difficult to discern when he refers to real people and when his imaginary voices take over. Whoever is speaking, though, he does not seek identification with the reader, either any approval or recognition nor integration in general. There is no sequence in Andy’s schizophrenic thoughts, they are incoherent, scattered, disconnected. They rush through Andrew Alsup’s fingers onto the pages of the book as fast as they can, and then - into the reality, where they simply materialize themselves as words and sentences. In this multidimensional maze of thoughts, Andy talks about his privacy constantly being illegally violated and harassed by the uninterrupted stream of imaginary voices that he calls many names, but mostly – chipmunk (because that’s how they sound like, he says). It’s never clear enough to whom the voices really belong, where is the boundary between what is real and what is unreal. It doesn’t even seem important sometimes. It’s more important who is involved in all that, and how.
I started reading this book, and I couldn't stop until I finished it the next morning. It puzzled me and made me change my opinion of it with every page. This book raises more questions than it gives answers. The most agonizing of them: who exactly Andy is; is he mad or genius; why the book is the way it is? I cannot say that I like or dislike the book. It kept me tuned in I can’t say where to, so I won’t rate it low. On the other hand, I can’t rate it high because the lack of understandable sequence and the necessity for explanations affect the overall reading experience. So I rate this book 3 out of 4. This book is definitely not easy to understand, and not meant for those who expect a relaxing weekend reading. On the other hand, those who like brain-twisters or puzzle games might really enjoy it. So, if you happen to be one of the latter, be ready to dive into a different world for as long as it takes reading the book from cover to cover and read it again from the end to the beginning.
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There and Back There Again
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