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thecommonswings's review
5.0
Extraordinary- it starts out as light and silly comedy, gets stranger and stranger and then pelts into an orbit of complete absurdity about half the way through. Surrealist novels are always tricky to read because by nature they tend to believe in the joys of spontaneity, and as such sometimes can feel wildly self indulgent and rely on the author’s eye and ear for image or dialogue. Bauer’s genius is that it feels like he is absolutely making this up as it goes along, but towards the last third of the book there’s a sense of an actual design and structure to the madness. By the time it rattles to the conclusion, the weirdness is becoming decidedly grotesque and nightmarish and we end up with an ending like a Möbius Strip. The ending is genuinely terrifying as wild comedy becomes uncomfortable and then becomes completely bleak, before shuddering into the oldest trick in the twist ending book and a final letter that subverts that and basically brings us back to the beginning. It’s wildly funny, deeply disturbing and astonishingly bizarre. I think it might just be one of my favourite books ever
chuffwrites's review
3.0
I have a tenuous grasp on what this book was about; the second to last letter almost explained what was going on, and then the final letter left me completely baffled again. I have no idea if I've enjoyed myself. I spent the last half of the book saying over and over, "I have no idea what's going on." So ... Take from that what you will.
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