First of all, if you are insomniac then this book might help. I could barely read 3 pages at a time before falling deeply asleep.

Second, this is a very unusual book. I would liken it to watching the scenery roll by from a train. Everything flashes by, sometimes you stop and look at something more closely, then off you go again, flash, flash, flash.

I thought the author described his own book very well in chapter 72, in the words of his fictional book critic:
"You've slapped together travel notes, moralistic ramblings, feelings, notes, jottings, untheoretical discussions, unfable-like fables, copied out some folk songs, added some legend-like nonsense of your own intention, and are calling it fiction!"

Before I read the book I read the introduction which tells us the history of the author, and about the way the book is written, that each character is actually the author, the "I", the "you", the "she" and the "he". This is supposed to be very significant, in the words of the interpreter, "an exploration of various forms of human relationships and their implications for the individual. A rigorous and critical analysis of the self of one man..." I don't know about all that (yawn). The author starts chapter 52, which describes the above, "You know that I am just talking to myself to alleviate my loneliness. You know that this loneliness of mine is incurable, that no-one can save me and that I can only talk with myself as the partner of my conversation." (yawn) That just sounds like so much philosophical nonsense to me.
This author writes well, but it is not always clear what he is writing about. This is the first quote I marked as significant to what he was relating, "You tell barbaric and terrifying tales and I don't want to hear them, she says." (Don't think about the idea that she is just part of "I" and he is spending the whole book talking to himself! Yawn)
It is worth reading, I was fascinated, when I wasn't asleep over it.

Added to Ctychic's potluck bookbox for release tomorrow. Yay!

Released in Ctychic's potluck bookbox.

This book was reluctantly chosen from the Potluck Bookbox. That was after I read oliviapoolside's review. I will give it a try, sometimes I have insomnia.

Good Reading!