Mel Nicolai

Part philosophy, part metapysics, part absurdist chronicle, I'm still not sure that I completely understood The Case. Which, in a way, makes me think I did understand it. Which sets up a paradox that Brock - a week or so of whose life is charted in The Case - would sympathize with.

In either case, as a fan of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and their ilk, it was interesting to read something written in a similar style without the laugh-out-loud, spit-coffee-all-over humour. It's not that The Case is serious, somber and utterly without a laugh - just that it's a much more subdued humour.

And as it is, The Case proved to be an interesting trip through a week(ish) in the life of Brock - a good way to spend a lazy spring afternoon.… (lisätietoja)

I didn’t expect to enjoy this book nearly as much as I did. Ordinarily, I’m not a big fan of vampire fiction. But this is a great read, and Mel Nicolai is a talented writer.
This book is a mystery with an interesting plot and surprising solution. It will appeal to mystery fans, even if they’re not into vampires. Some mysteries have a priest, or a lawyer, or a cat as the amateur sleuth. Don’t be put off because Shake is a vampire.
If you do enjoy vampire fiction, this will be a treat Shake is the most interesting vampire since LeStat. His philosophical musings are thought-provoking. I hope this is the first of a series.… (lisätietoja)

To be honest, it took me about a month to finish The Case by Mel Nicolai, a mere 108-page book, which says a lot about it. Physically, it was very easy: the font big, the spacing wide, the chapters only a couple pages; but I didn't understand half the words, and had to read most of the sentences at least four times each to make the most generic sense of them. Occasionally, the sentences would be comprehensive to my mind. Often, they weren't.
The entire novel was like reading a philosophy text -- more specifically, I related it to Oscar Wilde. Everything in the book seemed quotable, a thoughtfully calculated idea the author wanted to convey. Perhaps if the words hadn't been so scientific (well they sounded scientific to me. I mean, who is expected to know what "cingulate" means, anyway?) I could have enjoyed Nicolai as much as I enjoyed Wilde.
The main problem I had with The Case though, is how it lacked a plot. Maybe Nicolai is such an phenomenal, recalcitrant writer, that I'm too dumb to know what he's talking about. Maybe there is a plot that I have just missed. Either way, I found no point to all 108 pages of the book.
Brock Meirski, the protagonist, is an unbelievably perspicacious, speculative character, but nothing really happened to him. He is supposedly on The Case, but I still don't know what The Case is exactly, even though the book ends, talking about The Case. All Brock really did was wake up, use the toilet, go to the grocery store, say hello to his neighbor, meet a pretty girl, invite the pretty girl to his house, then go to bed. The next morning, he did it all over again. The next morning, well...I don't think there even was a next morning. If there was, I am definitely missing something from the story. My essence is, no excitement or meaning radiated from The Case's words, nothing compilable, nothing to analyze. There was no suspense, there was no climax, there was no falling action, which are all necessities of even the worst fictional story. There were some really neat observances on life and on people, but in the end, it was like adding a dab of different colors of paint to a palette and then mixing the shades all together; a big messy colorless blob.
Sadly, I cannot say I would recommend this book, because of how absurdly aimless it is. If you're studying metaphysics and want to use The Case as a resource to enhance your studies, go ahead. Otherwise, try to keep your distance.

Loved: "The present, life in the present, is always up ahead. It's almost like when you're born, a race starts. The doctor slaps you on the ass and everyone and everything takes off at speed. Only you can't run yet. It'll be a few years before you can get in the race, and by then you're so far behind you'll never catch up."

Radical Rating: 4 hearts (out of 10) - Read and have wrinkles by the time you’re finished (from frowning so much).… (lisätietoja)