With his debut novel, Samedi the Deafness, Jesse Ball emerged as one of our most extraordinary new writers. Now, Ball returns with this haun...
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Jan 16, 2012
Greg
rated it: 
My unreviewed books are amassing around my bed. They aren't allowed to return to a shelf until they have been written about. In order to destroy a small amount of the expansive clutter in my tiny apartment I'll finally start reviewing some of them. I'm not planning on this being an epic review or even very good one.
The Way Through Doors is a wonderful book. Jesse Ball executes the structure of this book perfectly. The book is about a man who works as a government inspector in a v More...
The Way Through Doors is a wonderful book. Jesse Ball executes the structure of this book perfectly. The book is about a man who works as a government inspector in a v More...
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Apr 15, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it: 
Critics described The Way Through Doors as experimental fiction at its very finest. Loath to pigeonhole the novel, some nonetheless compared aspects of it to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Paul Auster's New York trilogy, and novels by Franz Kafka and Kazuo Ishiguro. Certainly, the work is disorienting as it plays with time, geography, and character -- from a Russian empress to princes to bureaucrats to a "guest artist" who reads minds. At times, the novel is perhaps too whimsical fo
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Mar 07, 2009
Very intriguing brief review in the New Yorker (3/2/09 p. 71):
In an inversion of the Scheherazade legend, the hero of this dizzyingly circuitous novel must tell stories all night to a beautiful amnesiac, to keep her awake and alive. He begins by explaining himself: he writes pamphlets (sample title: “An Inquiry into the Ultimate Utility of the Silly, as Prefigured in the Grave and Inhospitable”) and works as a municipal inspector, in an office reachable only by ladder. His stories di More...
In an inversion of the Scheherazade legend, the hero of this dizzyingly circuitous novel must tell stories all night to a beautiful amnesiac, to keep her awake and alive. He begins by explaining himself: he writes pamphlets (sample title: “An Inquiry into the Ultimate Utility of the Silly, as Prefigured in the Grave and Inhospitable”) and works as a municipal inspector, in an office reachable only by ladder. His stories di More...
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Feb 14, 2009
Ill Literati
rated it:
Kafka plus Calvino.
Again, one of the best books I've read since I was born.
Words that describe the experience of reading The Way Through Doors<i/> by Jesse Ball: fanciful, enlivening, refreshing, strange (with a positive connotation), dreamlike, wise, playful, eternal ...
To be honest, when I started reading this book I thought, "Pretentious ..." but was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a lovely, delightful ride through a rea More...
Again, one of the best books I've read since I was born.
Words that describe the experience of reading The Way Through Doors<i/> by Jesse Ball: fanciful, enlivening, refreshing, strange (with a positive connotation), dreamlike, wise, playful, eternal ...
To be honest, when I started reading this book I thought, "Pretentious ..." but was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a lovely, delightful ride through a rea More...
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Feb 10, 2009
Nissa
rated it:
I read Ball's first book "Samedi the Deafness" after getting it in my mailbox at work by accident (I work at a news organization and often get pitched books). I read it in one weekend and found it compelling but ultimately pretty forgettable. "The Way Through Doors" takes all of the crazy, winding elements that kept me reading "Samedi" and jumps headlong down the rabbit hole. It definitely takes some patience to read -- unlike many other story within a story tale
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Jul 29, 2011
Alex
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This is an exquisitely written novel unlike anything I've ever read. I might have seen something like it in my dreams and/or a David Lynch film. The book doesn't have any chapters, quotation marks, and the lines are numbered incorrectly. The story follows the protagonist, Selah, but constantly transforms into new stories in smooth transitions. The architecture of the places the characters find themselves are described vividly and are elaborated with surreal complexities.
The guess master is More...
The guess master is More...
Jun 09, 2011
Jeruen
rated it:
This is a rather bizarre novel, that in the end, I think I was glad that I picked it up. When I began this novel, immediately, it felt like a David Lynch film, and it was quite surreal. Surreal to the point that I actually liked the fact that it was indeed, very different and surreal.
So, how is it surreal? First, let me say something about the nature of its text. This is the story about Selah Morse, who is an inspector working for the government. One fine day, he becomes witness to a c More...
So, how is it surreal? First, let me say something about the nature of its text. This is the story about Selah Morse, who is an inspector working for the government. One fine day, he becomes witness to a c More...
Feb 14, 2011
Zach
rated it:
This is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. I don't even know how to describe it. It is a series of stories set inside stories, like a Matryoshka doll or the layers of an onion. There are no seams between the stories - one flows into the next, and the protagonist's quest creates not a plot but a sense forward motion. Each section of the novel, before any climax can be reached, branches off into another new "plot," but these nested stories continue telling the story of the ori
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Dec 29, 2010
Jesse Ball doesn't use quotation marks or page numbers, opting instead for numbering every 5th paragraph.
The novel embraces absurdity while toying with surrealism. One story flows into another, sometimes without the reader realizing exactly when he has passed through one of the many "doors". Reality shifts and bends and folds back onto itself, and some stories are called back to be told in different ways. Main characters find themselves persuing each other through varying ta More...
The novel embraces absurdity while toying with surrealism. One story flows into another, sometimes without the reader realizing exactly when he has passed through one of the many "doors". Reality shifts and bends and folds back onto itself, and some stories are called back to be told in different ways. Main characters find themselves persuing each other through varying ta More...
Sep 10, 2009
Scott
rated it: 
I visited an independent book store in the summer, and stumbled upon their web site a couple of days later. They had set up for employees to post their recommendations and was really taken by the write up for this book. Here is the description that caught my eye from Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com:
When pamphleteer Selah Morse witnesses a taxi run down a young woman, he takes her to the hospital and, in telling the staff that he is her boyfriend and that her name is Mora Klein, is gMore...
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May 04, 2009
Andy
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The jacket design of TWTD makes immediately clear how we should understand Ball's writing. The cover appears to be a quote or reference to Roubaud's The Great Fire of London. While the books are different, we are to understand a serious literary endeavor in this novel, despite the lightness of the fables therein. The structure is actually more like something one might imagine Calvino would assemble, but it is less rigorous, and the looseness seems to come the author's willful need to keep thin
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Jul 11, 2009
Pablo
rated it:
A captivating novel, if only for its labyrinthine structure and thoughtful horseplay. Needless to say, it isn't easy to keep track of everything on a mere reading, given the stories' constant mutations and deviations. Easier to admire than to like, I presume, but it is highly recommended.
You keep reading because you don't really get it, hoping at the same time that by the time you've finished you will have understood it all. Parts of the book sound familiar; others strikingly origina More...
You keep reading because you don't really get it, hoping at the same time that by the time you've finished you will have understood it all. Parts of the book sound familiar; others strikingly origina More...
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Jul 18, 2011
David
rated it:
This is a jarring fable about seeking identity, storytelling, and enjoying the ride. And what a ride it is, Ball writes a book that zooms inside itself, finding pathways from story to story. This fluid motion happens within a fleeting plot about a pamphlet-maker who is searching for a woman's identify, a woman he loves, a woman who's gotten amnesia after a car accident. Small moments of this book are beautiful and haunting, like the inclusion of a king forced to marry the ugliest woman the king'
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Feb 28, 2010
Lauren
rated it:
I am loving this book. I was apprehensive at first, because I was looking for a realistic piece of fiction that I could just sink my teeth into, and the reviews said: if that's what you are looking for, then this is not the book for you. AND the book was compared to Italo Calvino's "If On a Winter's Night," which I HATED. But I am adoring this book, and I think the big difference is that I don't feel manipulated... It doesn't feel like an exercise. Rather, each of the different sto
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Jul 16, 2009
Jamie
rated it: 
I like the concept of the narrative, but the result didn't work for me. Like a dream, the plot jumps around, repeats, and morphs into something else. The title describes the way the story is told very well. Instead of following a singular line, the narrative takes detours into other rooms and other worlds. The reader is left feeling a bit confused about what is actually going on.
Here's a line from the book that I think sums it up well: "When one goes out into the world, one is s More...
Here's a line from the book that I think sums it up well: "When one goes out into the world, one is s More...
Jun 14, 2009
Leanna
rated it:
I thought it was beautifully written. The re-occurring bird references and folklore/folksong weaving was exquisite. I thought the pamphlet snippets were the best pieces of the work. There were little moments in each of those pamphlets that were stunning. I thought that Sif was most intriguing… even though Selah claims she was a figment. Most of all… I thought it was brilliantly mapped out as a string of sleep-deprived thoughts started after a tragedy and continued into the hours of the evening,
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Feb 14, 2009
I think I thought Samedi the Deafness was supposed to be kinda lame, but this sounds freaking great. From the Boldtype review:
A funhouse of fictions, the novel is full of sudden doorways, with each room cluttered with the caprices of Selah's imagination; but it is also a fable, with morals for both Mora and the reader. At one point, a character reads from one of Selah's brilliant, talismanic pamphlets, "Entering Rooms, a Grammar and Method," which demands that we pass thro More...
A funhouse of fictions, the novel is full of sudden doorways, with each room cluttered with the caprices of Selah's imagination; but it is also a fable, with morals for both Mora and the reader. At one point, a character reads from one of Selah's brilliant, talismanic pamphlets, "Entering Rooms, a Grammar and Method," which demands that we pass thro More...
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Feb 14, 2009
Book
rated it:
Kafka plus Calvino.
Again, one of the best books I've read since I was born.
Words that describe the experience of reading The Way Through Doors<i/> by Jesse Ball: fanciful, enlivening, refreshing, strange (with a positive connotation), dreamlike, wise, playful, eternal ...
To be honest, when I started reading this book I thought, "Pretentious ..." but was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a lovely, delightful ride through a rea More...
Again, one of the best books I've read since I was born.
Words that describe the experience of reading The Way Through Doors<i/> by Jesse Ball: fanciful, enlivening, refreshing, strange (with a positive connotation), dreamlike, wise, playful, eternal ...
To be honest, when I started reading this book I thought, "Pretentious ..." but was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a lovely, delightful ride through a rea More...
Jun 13, 2009
Nicola
rated it:
Sorely disappointed by this. Loved "Samedi the Deafness." But though the structure of "The Way Through Doors" was interesting with story within story within story, ad infinitum, and the writing was strong and poetic, I don't think Ball pulled this book off. It was too much candy; every page there's something "fun" happening without any edge. There was no real threat in the book to sustain it--only the quirky and the, ultimately, saccharine. Though it's an interestin
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Feb 12, 2010
Nichole (Dirty H)
rated it:
If you take the movie "The Brothers Bloom" and stir it together with the book "House of Leaves", then stick it in a blender with a set of deformed Russian nesting dolls, then put it under your pillow and dream it, you might come up with an approximation of this book.
And that's the best I can do to explain it. :) This is a series of stories within stories within stories, all of which feel very much like a dream because they follow no real sense of logic. But it's f More...
And that's the best I can do to explain it. :) This is a series of stories within stories within stories, all of which feel very much like a dream because they follow no real sense of logic. But it's f More...
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Apr 27, 2009
Rachel
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Go ahead- judge this book by its cover. Infinite and self-eliminating, this book is the hall of mirrors that I always imagined, as a child, one could step into and discover that mirror-world was not the same as the real world, but subtley different in wonderful ways.
Jesse Ball, poet by persuasion, writes experimental fiction in the spirit (though not necessarily at the level) of Foer and Marquez. This book is a nesting doll of stories where even the "real" world is seen thr More...
Jesse Ball, poet by persuasion, writes experimental fiction in the spirit (though not necessarily at the level) of Foer and Marquez. This book is a nesting doll of stories where even the "real" world is seen thr More...
May 12, 2010
Heather
rated it:
by Pablo Herandez: A captivating novel, if only for its labyrinthine structure and thoughtful horseplay. Needless to say, it isn't easy to keep track of everything on a mere reading, given the stories' constant mutations and deviations. Easier to admire than to like, I presume, but it is highly recommended.
You keep reading because you don't really get it, hoping at the same time that by the time you've finished you will have understood it all. Parts of the book sound familiar; other More...
You keep reading because you don't really get it, hoping at the same time that by the time you've finished you will have understood it all. Parts of the book sound familiar; other More...
Jul 03, 2009
Colin
rated it:
A lovely book, but a lovely book that feels overly concerned with it's own loveliness - quite often Ball's unique descriptive touch will delight readers; by the end of the novel I must admit to a bit of impatience with his incessant vagueness, both in plot and in descriptive detail.
The framing device of the novel (a man telling stories to a woman who has lost her memories) is pretty much dropped right away; stories bleed into stories bleed into other stories without explanation or w More...
The framing device of the novel (a man telling stories to a woman who has lost her memories) is pretty much dropped right away; stories bleed into stories bleed into other stories without explanation or w More...
Jul 08, 2009
Natalie
rated it:
If Borges and Calvino drank themselves stupid and procreated (it could happen in their worlds), they would produce this book. This story has the labyrinthine mazes of Borges (is that redundant? Who cares?) and the atmospheric fairy tales and utter charm of Calvino. At times it also reminded me of a less-frightening House of Leaves, but that book owes a lot to Borges anyhow. Throw in some Scheherazade without the murdered women, and The Way Through Doors appears.
Selah Morse save More...
Selah Morse save More...
Feb 01, 2010
Jon
rated it:
A beautiful little book of fable-like stories, characters and scenes that meld into one another, and shifts in space and time that are both awkward and completely natural at the same time.
I can imagine some readers might be put off by the non-linear nature of the story, or maybe consider it "gimmicky" - but for me it worked very well. At it's best, the book not only perfectly captures altered logic of cause and effect that we see in our dreams, but in fact creates a dreamli More...
I can imagine some readers might be put off by the non-linear nature of the story, or maybe consider it "gimmicky" - but for me it worked very well. At it's best, the book not only perfectly captures altered logic of cause and effect that we see in our dreams, but in fact creates a dreamli More...
Aug 10, 2011
Charles Martin
rated it:
I won't be so glib as to disservice this book with stock comparisons to canonical experimental fiction work, but suffice it to say that this is a vexing (purposely so, of course) book from start to finish. This is literature for literature's sake and anyone who wishes for their prose to be spoken in the author's moral or didactic voice would be wise to skip this one all together. Those who remain to see what sort of passions are kept within these pages are sure to be beguiled and bewildered in e
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Jun 18, 2011
Alex
rated it:
A good read, although the style and presentation gets to be a little overwhelming. I found myself overwhelmed by the layers of stories and frequently having to double back in order to keep track of the variant characters and tales. A minor note to complain about, but the lack of any real breaks in the narrative also made it hard to find reasonable places to set the book down. I would like to read this book again at some point, but attempt to do so in one sitting and perhaps while taking notes to
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Jul 20, 2009
Kristine
rated it:
I just finished this over the weekend and i'm conflicted. i wanted to love it because i loved samedi the deafness, but i felt like the female characters were too similar to his previous novel. the tricky Sif being too much like Grieve and Mora feeling oddly half formed. i feel like it warrantes another read. his ideas are layered and worked into and around each other in an elegant way. the shifting stories were seamless and you often couldn't tell exactly when you entered a new one.
Jul 18, 2009
Chris
rated it:
Such a sweetheart of a book. I guess I've got a thing for frame stories right now -- reading Barth and a critical book about the Canterbury Tales -- but this one is a frame within a frame within a frame that melds into the previous frame. It's like an MC Escher drawing put to print, with a (sort of) love story. Sometimes there's a bit too much cleverness and a lack of genuine feeling, but that's ok. Such a pleasure to read, that I found myself relaxing some of my "standards".
Mar 30, 2009
Renee
rated it: 
Quite possibly the most annoying book ever. I usually like stories within a story, but Ball adds so many in without ever finishing one. All the tales are interesting, and nicely written but then they just stop abruptly. Couldn't this guy just write a collection of short stories? By the time he got back to the main characters I just wanted the book to be over- the ending made no sense and was completely unsatisfying. I don't recommend this book, and wouldn't waste my time with anything from this
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