ferdnaranjo

If you love Borges's conceptual games and Calvino's prose, read Mason. "His" book is a recently decoded collection of apocryphal stories about Odysseus, which range broadly in style but remain consistently high in quality -- an achievement on Mason's part. But the prose really is borrowed: it can seem as if you're reading the Lost Books of Calvino. Mason's style makes for that brand of engaging reading -- well-phrased ideas, surprising syntactical turns at pivotal narrative moments, ideas and structures that make you put the book down to savor the tunnels each story leads you down -- which is both its success and its limitation. At the end of the day, it's worth the read, but, as we readers value stylistic novelty or at least individuality these days, the book feels like an achievement, but of the second order.

2022-11-10 15:08