I enjoyed reading the book by Ansgar Allen, and it was definitely different. Lots of interesting ideas, but it was just one long paragraph, in case you don't like that (hard to mark your spots). Characters were interesting. #TheWakeandtheManuscript #NetGalley

Not for me. The book, purposefully written in a dense, dry manner that is representative of academic writing and stream-of-consciousness of a nameless protagonist who is ill (and possibly slightly crazed), the majority of this book is a single paragraph. Interesting idea and, I believe, executed in the manner intended, just not for me. DNF around 30%.

At the core of this novel is a philosophical exploration of the educated mind, "the grammar of his upbringing, the grammar of that environment and the grammar of his imprisonment."

A man attends the wake of a childhood friend, where he is provided a manuscript written by the deceased to save, to make something of. A wonderful twist is that this man has been repeatedly disrupting the creation of this manuscript for years. At the wake, it is clear that the manuscript has become a point of obsession for him as a manifestation of all the questions that linger from a common difficult childhood, where church was like the "household furniture," innocuous and yet pervasive to every moment. Each man ends up experiencing quite different adulthoods, where their paths, at times unfortunately, continue to repeatedly cross. We only ever see the deceased through the eyes of this man, and I wonder if we ever learn anything of the deceased at all, or instead are we ever just gazing at the man himself crumbling.

The writing is claustrophobic, intense, and purposefully circular and repetitive. The book is also written without any text breaks, thus compounding the intensity. But fortunately, there are incredible moments of humor and relief as the man interrupts his reading and memories with sharp judgements but then humility.

I felt a sense of urgency while reading, that I couldn't put the book down, yet at the same time I was unsure of what I even wanted to know. I found the ending to be incredibly tender--any part of the novel that includes reference to the speaker's daughter is like a crack through the mania, where something truly known and understood exists in his life: a deep love for his daughter.

Overall, it is an enjoyable dive into the neurotic mind of an academic.

I am not sure how to describe this novel but I do recommend it! It’s really well written and captures fascinating philosophical ideas almost off-hand, an interesting premise and characters make this a compelling read.