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The Distant Sound
A composer who has already given up composing - because of his inability to notate the music of the spheres - becomes increasingly fixated on capturing a mysterious, eerie, distant sound, which he soon equates with all the things he desires most: the perfect woman, the perfect city, the perfect work of art. Obsessed with his impossible quest, the man breaks out of the asylum and begins a series of comic, dreamlike, and ultimately haunting adventures as he tries to locate the source of the sound that consumes him... and instead finds the root cause of all his failures.
- GenresFiction
289 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2011
The Distant Sound is an old friend you encounter while driving down a residential street. You're driving in one direction and The Distant Sound is coming toward you the opposite way. You both recognize the other's car and slow down, rolling down your windows, so that you can say hello.
As soon as The Distant Sound smiles at you through the car window, you're overjoyed to see it. You pause to talk even though you're late for an appointment. The Distant Sound launches into a long-winded account of what has been going on since you last saw it. You're ever more late but you keep your foot on the brake and listen because you're so, so interested in what The Distant Sound is telling you.
But then, another car comes down the street behind you, and you know that the car can't pass because you and The Distant Sound are stopped in the road, blocking it. The Distant Sound apparently doesn't notice or care about this third motorist, and continues to talk to you enthusiastically. You are no less interested than you were in the beginning, but you're starting to feel restless because you yourself are late, and now you're inconveniencing this other driver.
You're SO DEVOTED, though, to your friendship with The Distant Sound that you put your manners and punctuality aside to go on listening, but can't help thinking to yourself that there's got to be a pause coming up, or an end to the story, but The Distant Sound goes on and on and the driver behind you is honking now and finally when it's over, you're just so glad to be done with it that you feel like you've missed out on a good deal of the content of the discussion that you and The Distant Sound have just tried to have.
As soon as The Distant Sound smiles at you through the car window, you're overjoyed to see it. You pause to talk even though you're late for an appointment. The Distant Sound launches into a long-winded account of what has been going on since you last saw it. You're ever more late but you keep your foot on the brake and listen because you're so, so interested in what The Distant Sound is telling you.
But then, another car comes down the street behind you, and you know that the car can't pass because you and The Distant Sound are stopped in the road, blocking it. The Distant Sound apparently doesn't notice or care about this third motorist, and continues to talk to you enthusiastically. You are no less interested than you were in the beginning, but you're starting to feel restless because you yourself are late, and now you're inconveniencing this other driver.
You're SO DEVOTED, though, to your friendship with The Distant Sound that you put your manners and punctuality aside to go on listening, but can't help thinking to yourself that there's got to be a pause coming up, or an end to the story, but The Distant Sound goes on and on and the driver behind you is honking now and finally when it's over, you're just so glad to be done with it that you feel like you've missed out on a good deal of the content of the discussion that you and The Distant Sound have just tried to have.
November 19, 2010
I wanted to like this, I was even able to get into the whole second person thing, but I found the narrative voice terribly grating. Gave up after about 50 pages of loathing the experience. Two stars though since I figure it's just not my thing and I did think there was a lot that I would have liked if the narrator wasn't irritating as hell to me.
October 15, 2012
the most chaotic, terrifying, and hilarious novel I've ever read since The Third Policeman. You might go a little insane.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews