Susan!'s review
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
Susan!'s review
rating:
bookshelves: 2007read, wanted
recommended for: fans of Barker, metafiction, pseudo-memoir, book arts
status: Read in December, 2007
rating:
bookshelves: 2007read, wanted
recommended for: fans of Barker, metafiction, pseudo-memoir, book arts
status: Read in December, 2007
One of the most interesting premises I've read about all year. I think that in that respect, Barker is almost setting himself up for failure; the story has so much potential and of course he never quite reaches it.
However, this is a great addition to the world of metafiction and the pseudo-memoir (I have no idea if there is an official term for fiction written in the style of memoir). I guess we can call it a metafictional memoir. The story has a lot to say about memoir, about fiction, books, words, Heaven and Hell, etc. And of course it plays with first person narration as well; we are constantly told that something is the truth, that something else is a lie, that we are being told the truth but not the whole truth. We are being threatened, manipulated, watched. My main complaint: I don't feel like I was given enough credit as a reader to figure things out for myself. A little more subtlety would've done wonders.
The book starts out slow (though it kept my interest) but ...more
However, this is a great addition to the world of metafiction and the pseudo-memoir (I have no idea if there is an official term for fiction written in the style of memoir). I guess we can call it a metafictional memoir. The story has a lot to say about memoir, about fiction, books, words, Heaven and Hell, etc. And of course it plays with first person narration as well; we are constantly told that something is the truth, that something else is a lie, that we are being told the truth but not the whole truth. We are being threatened, manipulated, watched. My main complaint: I don't feel like I was given enough credit as a reader to figure things out for myself. A little more subtlety would've done wonders.
The book starts out slow (though it kept my interest) but ...more
