At first glance, the author's more recent project – a 4,400-page "first season" of a projected five-or-so season novel serial – certainly has style. Let's see if it has substance, or if it's just more captivating twaddle to seethe over.
Mark Z. Danielewski, The Familiar, Vol. 1: One Rainy Day in May
2015 / Ebook / 880 pages / USA
Even as a fan of wank for art's sake, this literary pilot episode was an uphill struggle for most of the first half until the semblance of connections started to become vaguely fuzzy across these disparate events happening to unrelated characters in different locations in real time (depending on your reading speed {and how much you've got going on in your life}). But don't all the best things start out quite annoying?
Spanning multiple genres and styles, some chapters are more welcome than others once those bespoke colours and typefaces become familiar.
Mark Z. Danielewski, The Familiar, Vol. 2: Into the Forest
2015 / Ebook / 880 pages / USA****
There's more pretty word art in Vol. 2, which was the main motivation
to persevere. I'm not sure how he's going to keep raising the bar,
but I've already committed too much time to stop committing
more time now. My main worry is that the more pointless
and distracting side stories won't converge until Vol.
27.
...I got 100 pages or so into book three when the ennui set in. Maybe I'll continue one day, but since the series was cancelled after 5/27 books due to insufficient interest anyway, there's no rush.
