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• Author: Steven Hall
• Category: Fiction - Experimental

If you were to take the love child from a Alex Garland, David Mitchell and Mark Z. Danielewski threesome, say…”The Beach”, “Number 9 Dream” and “House of Leaves” respectively, then the product of it would probably be “The Raw Shark Texts”. Other, more qualified critics are also comparing him to Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon and a Japanese author whose name I can not remember and likely would not be able to spell if I could (but whom I will most definitely have to look up), but I do not pretend to know that, because I have only read one Auster book. There is no doubt that for his debut novel Hall has borrowed heavily, in my opinion mostly from Danielewski, and he has taken the elements that he appreciated from other authors and given it his own creative, ambitious twist, to make of this thriller something that is conceptually amazing, albeit abstract and difficult to approach.

If you are a fan of the clear cut story with simple to follow plots and entirely grounded themes, then I will let you know now not to come anywhere close to this book. If you however have enjoyed the work of any of the authors mentioned above or even the work of Italo Calvino (particularly “If On A Winter’s Night A Tarveler…”) then this book is going to take you for a wild ride.

This story will demand a little bit of patience from the reader, not because the story develops slowly (quite the contrary, from the very beginning it gives you a kick in the butt and sends you down a flight of stairs, blindfolded), but because it starts like a very straight forward thriller and then becomes something else entirely. Eric Sanderson wakes up one day not knowing where he is, who he is and why he is there, having only letters sent to him by a past self with a series of instructions to try to help him determine who he is. You see, Eric suffers from a condition that began shortly after a boating accident that claimed the love of his life, which wipes out chunks of his memory, time and time again, each time erasing more and more of his former life. This is Eric Sanderson number 11. And just when it may seem that you have a handle on that, the weirdness comes, shaking things all over and making somewhat of a mess. There is the Ludovician, which threatens Eric with never making it to his 12th ‘rebirth’ from amnesia, there is his run into unspace guided by pixie-ish Scout and then there  is the entire last third of the book which asks you to exercise your pretend bone, one which most of us forget to use after the age of ten.

If that makes absolutely no sense, do not worry, it all does as you read the book and it does in a fashion that is fast paced and engaging. Raw Shark reads like a thriller, but requires a lot of imagination from the reader, to tell a vivid story of a man in the run not from killers, not from concrete evil, but rather conceptual evil which is the product of a mad man’s quest for eternal life. Needless to say, while some of the readers (such as me) will eat this up with a spoon, this will also upset and frustrate the majority. Hall has tackled an inventive story and as mentioned above, ambitous, but he is still not exactly polished. Here and there his characters will falter and a few strings are left untied. For that reason, while I enjoy the work that was written here and would definitely read it again, I do not consider it as good as “Could Atlas” or “House of Leaves” which take the time to close all the small gaps and answer the important questions pertinent to the plot.

Typography plays heavily in this book, the way it did in Danielewski’s ‘House of Leaves’, but unlike the latter, Raw Shark streams together a story that is more approachable and easier to follow, if still entirely nightmarish and strange. With an efficiency of language–saying what needs to be said in six words what most people would say in six sentences–Steven Hall creates a handful of vivid, interesting characters starting with the easily relatable Eric, the gutsy Scout (who in my head would be perfectly cast as Natalie Portman) and the ecclectic Prof. Trey Fidorus, but just as the book seems rugged and broken, so too is the story. There is a way about this writing style that has a burst release quality, which is what reminded me of Alex Garland, clearly a book of the new generation that is used to technology and the way it seems to condense our writing, particularly on the internet. Unlike Garland, however, Hall tends to use word pairings that are at times clevers and at other times brow-furrowing (hehe, notice my own word pairing?), which might annoy another handful of readers. This is not necessarily a jab, at least I do not intend it as such, though some will likely see it in that shadow. I personally enjoyed the stylistic change and the simultaneous brevity of his sentences which collectively manage to make a very vividly detailed picture.

Lastly, it is unavoidable that I address the flood of media hype this book apparently has gotten. Commercially, this book is apparently doing incredibly well and I can only imagine a movie will be soon to follow. Do yourself a favor and try to ignore the numerous quotes commenting on the book. I say this because this book is a good book, fun and though not really ground-breaking it is certainly helping tear open the break already created. However, when one reads so much praise for a book it could end up building false expectations and that could lead to the ‘Da Vinci Code’ effect where you end up expecting a masterpiece and end up with something much less. This is not a masterpiece, but definitely a very fun read worth your time if the genre appeals to you.

Is this an abandoned island book? For me, yes, but I will say that most people will not agree with me here. In the end, if you are up for an experimental, imagination defying read, this one is for you. If you like your books off the Oprah list, then look further down my list of reviewed books, this one is not going to be one of them. And for the record, yes, there are some books (two, actually, to be precise) I have reviewed that as it turns out, did make it to the Oprah Book Club list…yikes.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Notes: Funny how I picked up this book. Having never heard about it before, I walked into B&N just after reading The Watchmen, where one of the detectives is called on the phone and given a tip on one of the characters named Rorschach. Unable to hear properly, the detective answers: Raw Shark? This struck me as curious and when I walked into the book store and saw that on a title, that curiosity grew. I had to touch the book, because I am a freak when it comes to books, if it does not feel good in my hand, the paper, the cover, the size, I will try not to buy it or find another edition that fits me better. It is also the reason why I avoid hard backs like the plague, because they are awkward and wrong and make a harshness out of the pleasure of reading. But anyway, I am going off on a tangent. When I picked up this edition of Raw Shark, the cover felt perfect, the weight of the pages perfect, the quality of the binding is solid. This book was a joy to have in my hands. Really. But most surprising to me was the coincidence which let me to pick it up in the first place. No regrets here.