an uncanny tale of the limits and power of story telling, SHADOWPLAY also works with a mesmerizing and subtle structure where the story repeats and folds into itself over and over again. among lock's best work, it continues the self-conscious fascination and manipulation of the theme of "other" that appeared in works like A HISTORY OF THE IMAGINATION and LAND OF THE SNOW MEN. here however lock's uproarious and dark-humored wit has been replaced with a different mode: that of a parable More...

About halfway through this beguiling tale, the narrator reveals himself. He is an eighteenth century Dutch trader with the East India Company. He watched the shadow puppet performance of the tale he tells a a much younger man, understanding not a word of it, but having it retold to him by a companion. Stories cluster around stories, gods and mortals intermix, the dead return to life, and a one-sided, obsessive love reaches what is surely a foregone conclusion. A pleasure to read. I gave it that More...

great book, read this on the way to bangkok, i talk about it in detail here:
http://5cense.com/09/BangTokDon/Re_Siam....

Seemed more mood than plot or characters. Didn't quite get it.

I love this book!