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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Selected Works of T S Spivet by Reif Larsen (view source)
Revision as of 10:20, 10 January 2011
, 10:20, 10 January 2011no edit summary
TS recounts his epic trek across America with the aid of many diagrams scattered around the margins of this book. Along with his footnotes and digressions, they attempt to impose order upon a chaotic, confusing, complex world.
Elements of the book reminded me of other novels. The obsessive noting of detail and the digressive footnotes were reminiscent of Nicholson Baker's ''The Mezzanine''. In American novels from ''[[To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee|To Kill a Mockingbird'' ]] to ''Catcher in the Rye'', an unreliable child narrator (TS is a compulsive liar) has exposed the hypocrisies of the adult world. There are even hints of Mark Haddon's [[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon|The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time]] in TS's slightly autistic behaviour, and something [[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling|Harry Potter-ish]] about a benign, possibly supernatural secret society which takes Sparrow under its wing.
However, author Reif Larsen has transcended the sum of such influences to produce an engrossing and original novel. There is no doubting its scope and ambition, akin to TS's own 'lifelong task of mapping the real world in its entirety'.
