mrchrn
This book reminds me of what it would be like if people dissolved into words but still tried to live together.
There are two kinds of poems I don't really like: one is very natural, unmeditated, lyrical, basically banal. The other is made 100% of ink: specifically, the ink of others.
This book is full of poems which are exactly not like that. It is for that reason that I highly recommend it and why I find it and pick it up and read from it quite frequently.
‘Concrete Underground’ knocked me out. It takes the noir plot and loops it into a feedback cycle until it breaks. It embraces the implausibility of the hero and squeezes horror out of it. Fast, sexy fun is laid on top of a growing layer of scar tissue on human faces until you can’t tell the difference anymore. It wears its influences on its sleeve and even walks you through them, but it makes something new out of them. A true 21st century novel.
"Author's Commentary" for this novel is now up at http://marchorne.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/authors-commentary-for-tokyo-zero/
Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:05:06 +0200