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hux's review
3.0
Well, that was weird. I'm not sure how to describe this book other than to say it combines reality with fantasy, the present with the past, and a great deal of madness. The principle story (or rather the skeleton upon which the meat of insanity hangs) is that of a seven foot tall man washing up on the shore in Edinburgh in 1945. He has no memory of who he is and has only the clue of the word Gog tattooed on one knuckle and Magog tattooed on the other. After wandering out of the hospital he instinctively feels that he must walk to London. And so the curious road journey begins..
This is the point at which a standard narrative ends. Instead we are dealing with a man who can neither trust his memories nor his immediate surroundings. He falls away into dreamscapes, bizarre fantasy worlds that incorporate broken memories and past acquaintances, all while his mind jumbles everything into a cohesive structure. He meets a woman and her chauffer who seemingly want to kill him. He meets the bagman (a chap who believes Jerusalem must be built in London to avoid Armageddon), he meets a man named Crook who encourages Gog to rape a maiden before later beign sexually assaulted by Crook himself. He meets a myriad of other curious characters who seem to flitter in and out of reality being both representative of his real life and creations of a feverish mind. All the while he must get to London to defeat Magog.
I adored the first third of this book. It was utterly mesmerising with some of the most beautiful prose and poetry I've read in a long time. Gog (and obviously Sinclair) are fascinated by ancient Britain, by the Celts, the Romans and the history of the island. As much as we are discovering Gog's identity, we are also discovering Britain's. It was all such a swirling madness of ancient lands and myth and legend, and the beauty of the people and the island. I was entirely fascinated by the insane structure and narrative. But as much as I enjoyed that first third, it just keeps going and, in my opinion, becomes a little too self-indulgent and frankly... too long.
By the halfway point, you want answers or at least something new. But instead we get more of the same, more of the insanity and confusion, all while Gog explores the country (the book has a map of Britain showing the journey Gog takes). And sadly my interest waned quite badly. And the fact is the book is one of those where if you skipped ten chapters, you wouldn't really be missing much in terms of plot. Truth be told, After the first few chapters (and the last couple), you could probably read this book in any order you wanted. That's part of its genius but also part of it's downfall.
I eventually found it hard-going and struggled to the end, but I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. It will either derange you or become one of the greatest things you've ever read.
This is the point at which a standard narrative ends. Instead we are dealing with a man who can neither trust his memories nor his immediate surroundings. He falls away into dreamscapes, bizarre fantasy worlds that incorporate broken memories and past acquaintances, all while his mind jumbles everything into a cohesive structure. He meets a woman and her chauffer who seemingly want to kill him. He meets the bagman (a chap who believes Jerusalem must be built in London to avoid Armageddon), he meets a man named Crook who encourages Gog to rape a maiden before later beign sexually assaulted by Crook himself. He meets a myriad of other curious characters who seem to flitter in and out of reality being both representative of his real life and creations of a feverish mind. All the while he must get to London to defeat Magog.
I adored the first third of this book. It was utterly mesmerising with some of the most beautiful prose and poetry I've read in a long time. Gog (and obviously Sinclair) are fascinated by ancient Britain, by the Celts, the Romans and the history of the island. As much as we are discovering Gog's identity, we are also discovering Britain's. It was all such a swirling madness of ancient lands and myth and legend, and the beauty of the people and the island. I was entirely fascinated by the insane structure and narrative. But as much as I enjoyed that first third, it just keeps going and, in my opinion, becomes a little too self-indulgent and frankly... too long.
By the halfway point, you want answers or at least something new. But instead we get more of the same, more of the insanity and confusion, all while Gog explores the country (the book has a map of Britain showing the journey Gog takes). And sadly my interest waned quite badly. And the fact is the book is one of those where if you skipped ten chapters, you wouldn't really be missing much in terms of plot. Truth be told, After the first few chapters (and the last couple), you could probably read this book in any order you wanted. That's part of its genius but also part of it's downfall.
I eventually found it hard-going and struggled to the end, but I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. It will either derange you or become one of the greatest things you've ever read.