kerry reviewed Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
Review of 'Only Revolutions' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
5 stars for exploring the physical form of a "book" but only 1 star for plot, character, dialogue.
Physical form: The impressive layout and design drew me to give this book a try. Every physical element of this book has been designed - there is nothing arbitrary. Two front covers; no back cover. A gorgeous, detailed photograph on the cover underlying the dust jacket. Themed-color ribbon bookmarks. Shrinking typefaces as the story progresses, implying to me gathering speed. Sidebars providing historical factoids. Every "o" or "0" printed in color; use of color for occasional selected words or phrases. Special typographic treatment even for the page numbers.
Traditional story elements: Ah, here's where things go wrong. Start at one end and read Hailey's version of events; flip the book over to read Sam's side of the story. Both provide a stream of consciousness narration (almost poetic in cadence) of …
5 stars for exploring the physical form of a "book" but only 1 star for plot, character, dialogue.
Physical form: The impressive layout and design drew me to give this book a try. Every physical element of this book has been designed - there is nothing arbitrary. Two front covers; no back cover. A gorgeous, detailed photograph on the cover underlying the dust jacket. Themed-color ribbon bookmarks. Shrinking typefaces as the story progresses, implying to me gathering speed. Sidebars providing historical factoids. Every "o" or "0" printed in color; use of color for occasional selected words or phrases. Special typographic treatment even for the page numbers.
Traditional story elements: Ah, here's where things go wrong. Start at one end and read Hailey's version of events; flip the book over to read Sam's side of the story. Both provide a stream of consciousness narration (almost poetic in cadence) of cars, sex, and getting high on a variety of substances...not unusual interests for teenagers. Annoyingly, these children can't spell. "Alone" comes out as "allone," which I kept reading as "all one" - perhaps intentional on the author's part but irritating to read.
I got through about half of this book (one-quarter of each narrator's story) before deciding to quit.
Gave up: December 17, 2010