Open city

An odd, compelling read. On the face of it, this is the diary of someone who walks around New York a lot, has some moderately interesting friends and very small adventures, but is worth reading because he himself is interesting and erudite and loves making connections between things. In other words, it's a lot like reading Cole's nonfiction, and for a lot of the book I couldn't shake the feeling that the narrator was just the author's mouthpiece. Which is alright--after all it was Cole's nonfiction that got me interested in reading his novel in the first place--but if that were all there was to it I don't think it would have held my attention over 200 pages.

What made this book special for me was its distillation of a very particular feeling: that of having a lovely time going about my business, while always conscious of the horror of the world around me. I do see this in Cole's nonfiction, but there's something about letting it ebb and flow through a much longer, more rambling work than allows it get much more powerful, and in the last few chapters it becomes completely crushing.

An odd, compelling read. On the face of it, this is the diary of someone who walks around New York a lot, has some moderately interesting friends and very small adventures, but is worth reading because he himself is interesting and erudite and loves making connections between things. In other words, it's a lot like reading Cole's nonfiction, and for a lot of the book I couldn't shake the feeling that the narrator was just the author's mouthpiece. Which is alright--after all it was Cole's nonfiction that got me interested in reading his novel in the first place--but if that were all there was to it I don't think it would have held my attention over 200 pages.

What made this book special for me was its distillation of a very particular feeling: that of having a lovely time going about my business, while always conscious of the horror of the world around me. I do see this in Cole's nonfiction, but there's something about letting it ebb and flow through a much longer, more rambling work than allows it get much more powerful, and in the last few chapters it becomes completely crushing.

Here's a short review (because a GoodReads server glitch just lost a longer review and I'm not going to rewrite the whole thing):

Teju Cole handles the formless, plotless, rambling novel with considerably more grace than I would have expected in a first-time novelist. Narrator Julius has a strange perspective, but is a thoughtful observer of the macro aspects of life. He is a New Yorker by way of Nigeria by way of Germany, a lover of music, literature, and art, and a newly practicing psychiatrist. And he walks. He walks a lot, and thinks while he goes. This book is the product of those thoughts.

The nature of the book makes it easy to disengage occasionally, but as I was roaming about doing my own observing, I often thought of Julius and his connection with the world and wanted to get back to the book.

TOB Note:
This would do better in the 2012 Tournament of Books if it were in a different bracket. I think it'll get past the Art of Fielding, as it is more challenging and original, only to lose to the Marriage Plot in the second round.