Review: strange and lovely
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2013
This is a strange little book, a novella length story about a boy who climbs a tree, sees a large black flying creature with claws, soft ears and fur, and then follows it along the street, to the boy's school, then home again via the public swimming pool. Interspersed with that thread is the story of Carly, a teenager on her way to visit her friends for a night of drinking.  Throughout both threads is another voice, this one disembodied, that speaks of the multiverse and how it shows itself in confusing circumstances. That gives us an idea about what is going on here, because the story is somewhat disjointed, sometimes jumping quickly from character to character and even from one version of a character to another version of the same character. Despite this, we are always clear whose point of view we are viewing the action from, and all the threads come together nicely in the end.It's the kind of book that niggles at your consciousness, leaving you with a sense of possibility, a feeling that the universe is somewhat stranger and more intricately linked than you might have previously imagined. In some respects it's amazing that the story hangs together at all,  yet it does, a fact that indicates a certain amount of skill on the author's part. No section is ever too long or too short and the changes happen more quickly as the book nears its conclusion - a good pacing technique.This is metaphysical fiction in that it presents a thought provoking vision of the universe, one that affects the way we experience our world. We are never sure if the flying creature is real or an extended metaphor, perhaps it is both, or neither. All possibilities seem, not only possible, but also perfectly reasonable. Though the writing could do with a bit of minor  tweaking in places, it is essentially a well-crafted and well finished book, which I recommend to anyone who likes something different.