false 1238101 061880112X 9780618801121 440 157 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182159358m/1238101.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1238101.The_Invention_of_Everything_Else 190905 Samantha Hunt 610 207 5 6 false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 25 13:39:24 -0800 2008 Sun May 04 11:43:08 -0700 2008
I think what it is, it's just that Samantha Hunt writes complete fabric. This is a short book but it is extremely dense, you don't want to miss anything and nor should you. I'm kind of a speed-reader/skimmer, and I did things unheard of in my regular reading--I re-read paragraphs three and four times, I re-started chapters, I took breaks between pages because I was just so overwhelmed by how much there WAS how much DOING how thrilling and beautiful and compact and lovely the text was, how moving and engaging and driving the story was. There weren't cheap turns and though I lived in fear that the ending would be a disappointment (I mean it's an ENDING, they are impossible to put a light touch on, right?), but dear god it was not. It was just great work.

I read Hunt's first book, THE SEAS, a few years ago, and though I loved her writing then I was sometimes confused by how thin the line was between magical and realism. Here she's grounded her world so you never feel lost but neither do you feel like you've got a true map, and she does this despite the fact that the book is written in a rather complicated series of voices with multiple perspective-changes. Her choices are awfully modern and never self-conscious, plus on top of it all you can tell that she's done her research, that her fiction about Tesla is now inseparably blended with the truth. That's sort of wonderful.

(Plus when you finally find out who Sam is, it is SO EXCITING.)

Anyway I don't want to oversell it, but this is the best. You guys go talk amongst yourselves because I'm going to go read it again. This is why we all read novels, for real.]]>