Ian Scuffling’s Reviews > The Logos > Status Update
Ian Scuffling
is on page 537 of 728
This is a kind of artist's novel but also a kind of social novel, and it has a lot about sports drinks, weird wheat whiskey and NFL in it.
— Dec 28, 2022 12:55PM
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Ian Scuffling
is on page 206 of 728
de Silva's masterful prose makes a glacially paced read feel super engaging and engrossing. I do feel a bit like he's shying away from letting things get "weird," so to speak, but maybe it's just layering up? Otherwise, very easy to just get sucked into this and let it carry you away, even as you're reading a 30 page chapter about a college football game and the elusive flavor of a sports drink.
— Dec 09, 2022 05:34PM
Ian Scuffling
is on page 86 of 728
There's something kind of Proustian about the meticulousness, thoroughness and obsessiveness in the narrative style here.
— Dec 03, 2022 02:43PM
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Dec 28, 2022 01:01PM
How much are you digging it? How does it compare to other biggies (like Infinite Jest, 2666, or Underworld maybe)
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Leif wrote: "How much are you digging it? How does it compare to other biggies (like Infinite Jest, 2666, or Underworld maybe)"I wouldn't really compare it to any of those books actually (well, I haven't read 2666). It's a first person, meticulously interior novel about a kind of avant-garde artist who needs money and takes a job to create the visual aspect of a guerrilla ad campaign for a company's series of consumer goods that are vaguely nootropic.
The style is hyperrealistic and kind of reminds me more of the moderns than postmodernists--I would actually link it more to something like Proust, or perhaps, The Recognitions in its critique of art and the artist, however, de Silva is looking less at "forgery" and mechanized reproduction, but more at like commercialization of art.
Ian wrote: "Leif wrote: "How much are you digging it? How does it compare to other biggies (like Infinite Jest, 2666, or Underworld maybe)"I wouldn't really compare it to any of those books actually (well, I..."
Fair enough - thanks for the detail here. Are you digging it?
Leif wrote: "Ian wrote: "Leif wrote: "How much are you digging it? How does it compare to other biggies (like Infinite Jest, 2666, or Underworld maybe)"I wouldn't really compare it to any of those books actua..."
Yeah, on the basis of style and form, it's highly successful and entrancing, however, I wish the characters were a little more interesting, and I wish there were a little more being tangled with here--for such a big novel, I think it might be a bit too hemmed in by the narrative point of view, which is a hyper-interior first-person. Despite that, it's engaging and curious enough that I want to see it through, where it ultimately winds up, etc. While I don't think it's especially similar to those other maximalist novels you mentioned, it will definitely please people who are into those kinds of novels.
Ian wrote: "Leif wrote: "Ian wrote: "Leif wrote: "How much are you digging it? How does it compare to other biggies (like Infinite Jest, 2666, or Underworld maybe)"I wouldn't really compare it to any of thos..."
I hear you - this is about what I was expecting (and probably why I was pushing you for details). Hard to pick up something so long when you can't expect much of a propulsive plot to push you forward (even though as I type that, I remember that my best reading experiences tend to always be those giant, "directionless" tomes
Leif wrote: "Ian wrote: "Leif wrote: "Ian wrote: "Leif wrote: "How much are you digging it? How does it compare to other biggies (like Infinite Jest, 2666, or Underworld maybe)"I wouldn't really compare it to..."
I'm definitely not a very plot-hungry guy, and this book has kept me coming back to it almost daily to read further, and I often lose myself in it for a lot of time, so there is something intoxicating about it.
It is both a point of criticism as much as a laudation to say that I wish it was doing even more with what it has going--a criticism because it feels like a missed opportunity, a laudation because it does so much so well already that it is making me want for more, even in its excess.
