6th November, 2008
Go Away
“Make it eye-catching”, the marketing people at Knopf probably said about the cover of Nick Harkaway’s book, The Gone-Away World. “Like something straight from the late ’80s. And add some fake velvet, too. That would be totally rad, dude.” Then again, maybe they had some budget constraints and all they could come up with was a good deal on hot pink and neon green ink.
Whatever the case, the novel tucked within was well worth reading, but, before I expand on this, let me preface things with this caveat: I’m not sure how serious Harkaway was when writing this book. There are some very serious parts inside, but they are nestled amongst hundreds of pages of dryly witty, sardonic and ofttimes humorous prose. Think Douglas Adams but only darker. I can’t talk much about the plot because there is a huge twist about midway through the book that really changes everything you already thought you knew about the story. I think Mr. Harkaway had a lot of fun writing this novel and I quite enjoyed reading it, even if it did suffer from some largish plot holes. If you don’t go into this novel expecting a literary masterpiece and just go along with the ride, I think you’ll enjoy it as well.
4.2/5 gogs.
Posted at 10:35 am |
