21st Century Literature discussion

Let's use this thread to discuss the first half of the book. Let's keep spoilers to a minimum.

We see a lot of techniques here that are very much representative of the last decade or so. Did Kunzru's work put you in mind of any other recent works? Was it done to good effect or was it gimmicky?

It reminded me quite a bit of Cloud Atlas with all the temporal jumps, although minus the balanced architecture or "zipper" structure of that novel. It never felt gimmicky, though. I think that's largely on account of the characters being so well-drawn and interesting. They captured my attention and imagination from the start.

I missed out on Cloud Atlas. Last month, there was a resurgence of discussion about Constellation of Vital Phenomena. Comparisons were made to A Visit From The Geek Squad. I didn't see that with Constellation at all. I do however find GWM often hits the same feeling. I'll confess I liked GWM a bit better than Geek Squad (though not nearly as much as Marra.)

I think that the similarity with Cloud Atlas is more apparent than real. Not only did Cloud Atlas have a much tighter structure (as Daniel noted), but its parts were much more traditional story telling. Cloud Atlas reminds me in some ways of A Thousand and One Nights -- GWM is something rather more different (and can best be discussed in the 2nd half topic).

It took a while for me to get used to the way the alternating chapters jumped around. 2008 chapters are interspersed with chapters from other times, and the "other times" seem to jump around in time almost randomly. The common element, of course, is place. Everything happens in the vicinity of the Pinnacles, the three great rocks. Once I began to recognize how the events from different times fit together, I began to enjoy the book much more. Is it gimmicky? Yes. Does it work? Yes, eventually, but you have to keep an open mind, particularly in the beginning. It did remind me a little of A Visit from the Goon Squad, in its use of chapters that jumped around, each telling part of a larger story, and focusing on different characters, and leaving it to the reader to figure out how the pieces fit together.

Now that it has been mentioned, I can see some style connection with Cloud Atlas and A Visit from the Goon Squad. I am not sure what order I read them the three books in, as I was very late to reading Cloud Atlas, but certainly did not see a connection between any of them at the time of reading. And the style doesn't seem that unusual to me -- I just finished Lexicon, which jumped back and forth in time without warning! I do not find the style to be gimmicky.

I liked GWM, but it was challenging. My liking grew after I finished it. It really stuck with me. I had hoped to reread it for this discussion, as I first read it almost two years ago, but other demands are making a complete reread undoable. I read this book because of this NY Times book review by Douglas Coupland -- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/boo... without men/. And, on rereading it now, I find myself agreeing with Coupland and disagreeing with Michiko Kakutani's review, also in the NY Times, which I had not previously read -- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/boo....

I'm enjoying the chronology. I think it keeps it interesting, although I wouldn't want to read it stretched out over a long period -- I'd find it tough to keep it all in my head. Without being too far along, it also makes me think very much about the interconnectedness of each period, although I'm not entirely sure how they will link. It's like these pieces of time are moving inexorably towards some correspondence, some link, some event that transcends 'when'.

I enjoyed the writing in many of the old chapters much more than the new ones. Jaz/Lisa and Nicky chapters -- and this may well be deliberate, seem like less beautiful prose. The observations of relationships are good, but the 20s/40s/70s chapters just seem better-written to me somehow.

I found Jaz and Lisa very real, though. the way that having an autistic child has affected their relationship drew me in and made me feel for them all. I had very little sympathy for Nicky. I often can have sympathy for the unsympathetic characters, but I just wanted to slap him.

I'm looking forward to finishing this book. I can't possibly comment whilst grappling with such a convoluted narrative. To be frank, it's feeling like a slog. I just hope that come the end it will be crystal clear how it all fits together. Somehow, I doubt it... We'll see!

I am a little late to join in here, but I have gotten this as an audiobook and have started listening during my daily walks. The audiobooks is very well done with several different readers. So far I have met Nicky and Schmidt and heard through letters (?) (it is hard to tell without seeing the print) about Padre Fray Francisco Garcés. So far I do not mind the jumping around in time. I get the idea that all the events are happening around the same geographic area.
Did anyone else listen to the audiobook of this?

Jane from BC wrote: "Did anyone else listen to the audiobook of this?"

I did, and thought it was exceptionally well done. The only real problem I had was when the narrators voice characters from other POVs, like when Nicky is voiced by a female narrator because he happens to appear in another character's chapter. Apart from that quibble, though, I thought it was a book well-suited to audio.

I did not listen to the audio book. But the structure is generally alternating chapters, with every other chapter being set in 2008 (and, later in the book, 2009). The chapters in between jump around in time, but are set in the same place in the desert, around an unusual rock formation.

This book is so hard to get into, my god. I'm already about a third in, and I'm still only rolling my eyes and fighting myself in order not to just drop it.. Let's hope it'll stick together later. But the chapters about the Padre.. I just skipped over that, man, was that ever so boring.. it reminded me of reading history books for school.
I also tried listening to it (not an audio book, just a reader app), but it was impossible to listen to because of the whole jumpy business. I would have to check back three times if I was really reading the correct file! This book is more of a reading than listening one for me, it seems.

Yeah I hated the chapter about the priest/friar whoever he was - it was pretty boring! This one took me a while to get into although now I'm about halfway I'm becoming more and more intrigued. But definitely too slow a start...

I think what grabbed me was the variety of voices. I loved that the book was strange and filled with random disparate moments and I liked them individually and wanted to see how they would come together.

I started it as an audiobook, but realized it wasn't going to work for me and switched to print. I can't follow anything that jumps around in time on audio, my left brain needs to see dates in print for them to register. Quite enjoyed the time jumping once I made the switch, though.

Have to agree about the Friar, but that was more or less the only chapter that didn't seem easy enough for me.