Review: I quite liked this!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 16, 2012
"Alice in Wonderland for adults" is a good summation of White Rabbit. One day Simon Cadwallader is ruminating on his life when he feels compelled to pull over, exit his car, and head into a wooded area. There he meets a beautiful, haunting girl and after spending a night with her awakens to find himself in a land that is not entirely unlike modern day England on the surface. The longer he stays, however, the more apparent it is that he is caught in a surreal world where nothing and no one acts as he expects them to.At first I wasn't very sympathetic towards the main character. His family is drifting away from him as a result of his infidelity, and his business is failing. He seems to have a great amount of self pity without doing much to take responsibility for his own life. Once he is whisked away to the mysterious world, everything seems to be out to get him. Even inanimate objects try to kill him, and he can only express ineffectual anger at his predicament. Although he has lost his memories and has nary a clue what to do, he does his best to stay out of trouble and find a way home. Occasionally he is smart enough to know what to say or do, and his good characteristics come out more as the story progresses. Along the way he meets a menagerie of bizarre characters, some malevolent and some with better intentions, that serve as good complements to this average-Joe protagonist.The writing is pretty stunning. The prose is nice and flows well, while using unusual metaphors and words to keep comparisons fresh. Sometimes the writing is rather meticulous, such as when it takes several paragraphs to get him to move a few yards thanks to some troublesome grass. I noted a few errors, that resulted in awkward phrasing or changes in tense. Despite those shortcomings, the writing is often evocative and provocative, and I greatly enjoyed it. Staurt Oldfield was really able to drive home the disconcerting, psychotic and sexual overtones of the land Simon ends up in.The story is slow to pick up, but towards the end of the first third of this collection (or the end of the first book, really) I started to get a bigger picture of what was going on. This is a very lengthy book, as it is an omnibus containing several novels. It has a good amount of content to keep one engaged for a long time, and I highly recommend it.