Only Revolutions: A Novel by Mark Z. Danielewski
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Book Reviews of Only Revolutions: A Novel
Book Review: Reach exceeding grasp?
Summary: 2 Stars
I really liked "House of Leaves." "Only Revolutions" is incomprehensible. On the other hand, if you never try and fail, you don't know what you're capable of. Here's to more glorious failures.Book Review: A Review by Dr. Joseph Suglia
Summary: 1 Stars
The mystery of all mysteries surrounds Mark Z. Danielewski's ONLY REVOLUTIONS (2006): Someone actually thought that this endless circuit of gibberish qualified for the National Book Award. And it is an endless circuit, literally. Columns of text spiral and loop, making the text all but unintelligible. We have two narratives---though the book does eschew traditional narrative, as if there were something revolutionary about doing so in 2006---that of Sam and that of Hailey, both of whom are perpetually sixteen. If you look at the bottom of the page while reading Sam's narrative, there you will find Hailey's upside down. The size of Sam's text dwindles as it progresses (from 22 November 1863 to 22 November 1963), gradually dwarfed by Hailey's. Turn the book around 180 degrees and start at the back, and you can read all about Hailey, from 22 November 1963 (the pivot of the book, the day of Kennedy's assassination) to 22 November 2063. History is circular, don't you know! The book's one motif is the stupidity of circularity.
Despite Danielewski's transparent desire to be innovative, there is nothing new here. It really is stunning how stale the book is rendered. The huge "S" with which Sam's narrative begins was stolen wholesale from ULYSSES, the characters Sam and Hailey are openly imitative of Shem and Shaun (the famous brothers of FINNEGANS WAKE), the typographical tics recall Derrida's GLAS and LA DISSEMINATION, and the wordage sounds a bit like the driveling gobbledygook of an ill-read high-school stoner who just finished leafing his way inattentively through both the WAKE and Pynchon's MASON & DIXON. Vaguely reminiscent of a designer Joyce-Made-EZ, ONLY REVOLUTIONS is enslaved to its precursors. Whereas Joyce creates worlds with words, however, Danielewski seems fearful of language and its literary capabilities. There is a kind of aggression toward language here, a certain virulent logophobia. It is a book not to be read--though I have read every silly, jingling phrase--but to be looked at.
How bad is the writing? At his very best, Danielewski recalls Shakespeare at his very worst. At his worst, he is singsongy, spewing forth nonsensical nursery rhymes that emerge from the page like sulphurous flames issuing from some mephitic kindergarten in Hell, as if the writer regarded FINNEGANS WAKE as a collection of limp, wince-inducing doggerel, as if the book were his ill-conceived idea of a "found poem"--the "found" part being the sort of dribbling babble found at the bottom of e-mails in order to fool SPAM filters--or his deeply unfortunate, private misinterpretation of Brion Gysin's "cut-up" method or surrealist automatism. To say that Danielewski's versification has little concern for elegance or expansiveness would be to say too little. When, for instance, he writes phrases and sentences such as "I outrace furry. Populate worry" [H 24]; "All of it too with puddles of goo, sog and drool" [H 43]; "Concerning her poverty, I resort to generosity" [S 9]; "I'm the heist. The impersonal price" [H 13]; "Slump. Plop. Awshucking dump" [S 83]; "And where five roads link, I poop puddles of stink" [S 241]; "Sam takes the lumps. And The Pumps" [H 55]; "Only capless Sam ups for horny, ogling my feet" [H 53]; "Sam spurts his mess. All over my chest" [H 59], you feel that it is really the result of indifference or laziness, as if jangle and flash were more important to the man than the explosive possibilities inherent to literary language.
By this, I do not mean to suggest that Danielewski's language is too difficult--far from it. His banter is not so much "difficult" as it is sterile and vacant of meaning.
It is impossible to do justice to this book without discussing another gimmick in its typographical design. This is because the book IS its typographical design. Danielewski the Graphic Designer highlights every "O" in the book with a golden hue, as if the letter were globally hyperlinked. This not an insignificant matter. The internet impresses itself upon every page of ONLY REVOLUTIONS. And in the final analysis, the flashy fonts and sprawling typographies are nothing more than glitzy Web design, counter-linguistic ruses distracting readers from the impoverishment of the book's verbal properties. But as some of us know, the pyrotechnics of typography and font are no substitute for writing with vividness and grace.
Dr. Joseph Suglia
Book Review: Exciting format, juvenile content
Summary: 1 Stars
The format is courageous if not as brilliant as it perceives itself to be, -- an attempt by a popular author to produce an experimental reading experience on the level of Finnegans Wake or maybe Maurice Roche (wonder if this author knows the latter). Unfortunately the writing is so godawful, so absolutely bad, I really don't know if this book is redeemed by its structure. I don't mean it is incomprehensible. Rather, it is like reading a college freshman who just discovered Joyce by way of Kerouac at his worst ('Visions Of Cody') and wrote 2oo pages in one night during a long session of drinking cough syrup. It's all incessant rhyming and glop, flop, allone non-bop slop plopped together, -- read it aloud and these revolutions will make you carsick. I found this book after reading with great interest about 'House Of Leaves' and ordered the latter from Amazon. Now I'm regretting it . . . it hasn't arrived yet but when it does I'll give it a fair chance, hoping that no book could possibly be as terrible as this one.Book Review: Pompous, artsy , indulgent junk
Summary: 1 Stars
I loved Danielewski's "House of Leaves" - one of my top 5 books of all time. Fun, scary, original, and challenging in the most entertaining way. I wasn't expecting more of the same with this book - that would be a disservice to the author. Still, after reading about 70 pages and barely comprehending more than a page's worth of what was going on, I gave up. If it weren't for the jacket synopsis, I doubt I would have gleaned that much. I guess if you enjoy random words thrown together in a self-indulgent imitation of poetry, this might possibly be of interest to you. For me, it ranks as one of the biggest literary disappointments of my life. The literary crash and burn.Book Review: An awful book, virtually unreadable
Summary: 1 Stars
There might be some people out there who liked this book. I however, am not one of them. This is a terrible read, one which will most likely disappoint everyone who's read House of Leaves and found it a refreshing glimpse into horror fiction in the new millenium. Only Revolutions has been described elsewhere as Only Revolting and I couldn't agree more. There should be an automatic refund option somewhere for unhappy buyers to claim their money back.