A review by ferris_mx
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
3.0
An interesting but ultimately failed experiment. The text has a high degree of symmetry, with the same story told twice, once along the top of the page, and once along the bottom, backwards. The stories are quite similar but not identical because they are different perceptions. Each page's top and bottom contains a symmetrical reference. The text of both stories starts big but shrinks. In the margins there are historical facts from a time period that is centered on the Kennedy assassination, and covering a period from the civil war until the date of publication. A lot of care was taken to create this symmetrical experimental "story".
But the story is half gibberish. And the half that is not gibberish does not make much of a story. That's the big chink in this story's armor.
Some reviews have said that readers take away very different perspectives from this book. So here's mine. The two stories are bifurcations of the U.S., geographical across the Mississippi (referred to as Mishishishi), north/south, and possibly others. Much of the story takes place in St. Louis, pretty near the geographic center of the U.S., and on the Mississippi.
But the story is half gibberish. And the half that is not gibberish does not make much of a story. That's the big chink in this story's armor.
Some reviews have said that readers take away very different perspectives from this book. So here's mine. The two stories are bifurcations of the U.S., geographical across the Mississippi (referred to as Mishishishi), north/south, and possibly others. Much of the story takes place in St. Louis, pretty near the geographic center of the U.S., and on the Mississippi.