I actually didn't finish it, as it kept starting over & all the parts weren't equally interesting. The danger with this approach is things begin to seem random. Unlike, say, Calvino's If on a Winter Night a Traveller...

I thought Mitchell dealt with that rather well - each story was easy to pick up again after a page or two. I agree some parts were not as strong as others, but it's also coloured by what genres you prefer. He jumped between 4 genres and 6 styles. You can either view it as jarring or refreshing.

I'll take a look at that other book.

The fractured narrative is in vogue, but it's difficult to pull off, because you keep losing fwd momentum, & the risk is you lose the readers/viewers attn. Wong Kar Wai is infamous for this, & I find his films gorgeous but inert. You might like Calvino, who manages to be cerebral & playful at the same time (unlike, say, Wong Kar Wai, who takes himself way too seriously, & seems to be sitting behind you kicking your chair to make sure you catch all the profound bits)

Excerpt from If on a Winter's Night a Traveller...

Talking of Wong Kar Wai, I see he's now threatening to make a movie with an actual plot!

I loved that book when I read it a few months ago. I pushed it to all of my friends. Strangely, most did not like it - my wife didn't like it much either. But I really felt it was a true work of genius. As you say, it is a showcase for the author's virtuosity, and in lesser hands it would have failed (or have been thrown off the roof of a building...). But the deliciously vicious characters of Frobisher and Cavendish, the Doctor, and some of the characters in the Orison and in the Luisa Rey story were all so well done and entertaining.

I considered what it meant after I had finished it - and above all, to me, it seemed to say that our ideas of civilization, or lack thereof, are incredibly subjective and should really be seen, or attempted to be seen, from a different perspective. I thought the device tying the stories together - mostly some sort of recollection or diary that falls into the hands of the next protagonist - was so effective from that perspective.

The fact that Frobisher, for instance, sees immediately that the Doctor was poisoning the first character (can't remember his name, was it Ewing), when it had not been obvious to me, also demonstrated that there is a certain universality to base human motivations that can be identified across the ages, especially by someone that experiences them himself!

Would love to chat at greater length at some point with you, because due to the
fact that the book does leave one without a true sense of closure...

He's going to chair the Cannes Jury! Wong Kar Wai, I mean, not Dave or Jeff.

When you attempt an attack by converging columns, you risk defeat in detail.

Oh, the Euros LOVE Wong Kar Wai! My name is still mud in certain circles because several years ago I read a couple of raves for Happy Together, & was foolish enough to drag not one but a large group of people off to see this work of genius. They began looking at me at some point in the movie, & I slunk into my chair. Like all his films, it's slooooooooooow.

I was intrigued by 2046, & rented it. For the first 20 or so minutes, I was mesmerized by the visual style alone, the lighting, the color, the compositions. But then it just turns into another inert film about uninteresting & unsympathetic people (like Woody Allen in a maudlin moment)