I need to talk to someone about this book.
First of all, the technical execution. It’s long but I was blown away by how each section builds on the previous, revealing how little people in the same household can know about each other’s inner lives. It’s been done before but this novel uses POV shifting to deeply explore the unknowability of others. The execution is S tier.
The Dickie section for me was a revelation. I’ll put aside the contextually stupid names for Dickie and Willie because of how hard it hits when you realize that all along this book wasn’t about four characters. Rather it was a peripheral vision look at the gradual unwravelling of sanity due to one man’s shame.
That for me was the whole point of this book: it’s an exploration of the way shame works on a cosmic, existential level as well as a personal level. It explored, so thoughtfully, so compassionately, all the ways we hide from each other but also from ourselves. Was Willie’s speech laying it on thick? Yes. Did I cry? Also yes.
I just really want to hear general thoughts from other people because I haven’t felt this emotionally and technically awed by a book in YEARS. On a technical level, the prose is as tight and packed with meaning as Toni Morrison writing. On an emotional level it’s like Steinbeck.
Please read it if you’re on the fence.
by Nervous-Revolution25