Paperback, 224 pages
Published Aug. 31, 2015 by Picador USA, Picador.
Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of seventeen, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. As the creator of “Trace Italian”—a text-based, role-playing game played through the mail—Sean guides players from around the world through his intricately imagined terrain, which they navigate and explore, turn by turn, seeking sanctuary in a ravaged, savage future America.
Lance and Carrie are high school students from Florida, and are explorers of the Trace. But when they take their play into the real world, disaster strikes, and Sean is called on to account for it. In the process, he is pulled back through time, tracing back toward the moment of his own self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people …
Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of seventeen, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. As the creator of “Trace Italian”—a text-based, role-playing game played through the mail—Sean guides players from around the world through his intricately imagined terrain, which they navigate and explore, turn by turn, seeking sanctuary in a ravaged, savage future America.
Lance and Carrie are high school students from Florida, and are explorers of the Trace. But when they take their play into the real world, disaster strikes, and Sean is called on to account for it. In the process, he is pulled back through time, tracing back toward the moment of his own self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people live.
I enjoyed Universal Harvester and was looking forward to this book, but it didn't do anything for me. I found it unengaging, wordy and vague.
I enjoyed Universal Harvester and was looking forward to this book, but it didn't do anything for me. I found it unengaging, wordy and vague.
I am not entirely sure were to begin with this novel. Itâs a relatively quick read despite the lush and elegant prose, but ends up feeling like you have been sunk into its pages for far longer than you actually have. Endless and timeless, like the imagined plains of Kansas it describes.
Some reviewers have suggested that the novel progresses backwards in time, the same way the back-masking the title is a reference to moves backwards through music, but the novelâs relationship with time is more complicated than that. While it generally moves backwards, it starts with a bright spot in the distant past, and its progression backwards through the life of the narrator after that progresses in fits and starts, rarely feeling entirely linear...perhaps to simulate the barely coherent sound of back-masking, but perhaps more because time has ceased to be an entirely linear experience for the narrator. Not …
I am not entirely sure were to begin with this novel. Itâs a relatively quick read despite the lush and elegant prose, but ends up feeling like you have been sunk into its pages for far longer than you actually have. Endless and timeless, like the imagined plains of Kansas it describes.
Some reviewers have suggested that the novel progresses backwards in time, the same way the back-masking the title is a reference to moves backwards through music, but the novelâs relationship with time is more complicated than that. While it generally moves backwards, it starts with a bright spot in the distant past, and its progression backwards through the life of the narrator after that progresses in fits and starts, rarely feeling entirely linear...perhaps to simulate the barely coherent sound of back-masking, but perhaps more because time has ceased to be an entirely linear experience for the narrator. Not in a mystical sense, but in the way that one becomes lost, a man who lives in memories which are not even always clear from fragments of fantasy and dream, scattered through the endless numbered days that remain as one goes on and on and on.
This isnât a narrative, so much as it is a slice of life, of a man who partially by consequence of his choices and partially by the world, has decided that this is all he will ever be. Do not look for resolution, solution, or lessons here. And while some will undoubtedly empathize with the narrator, iâm Sure others will judge him...I feel like too strong a reaction in either direction is missing the point though. We all have stories, that follow an internal logic of sorts, and is possible to both accept our logic and that of others even where they collide in sometimes disastrous ways. It is possible to both accept and regret our actions simulateously, to wish things were different but know they canât be.
I wonder how much Darnielleâs background working with adolescents in a mental hospital figured into the narrator, itâs something I hope to ask him about at an upcoming book signing, because I can potentially see a lot of that experience worming itâs way in. Similarly, the role religion plays here, both overtly and more subtly (in the form of nigh religious role some of the narrators constructs play in his life) is interesting given the authorâs relative strong beliefs.
I am probably of precisely the right age and demographic to have fallen for this book, as many of the time sensitive cultural touch stones that are so important to the narrator were also things that played large roles in my life during similar developmental periods. Iâm not sure that it would resonate as well with someone too far outside Darnielleâs generation, and from too different of a background. There are clear that could be drawn to experiences in todayâs world, but I wonder still how that would effect the connection.
i am somewhere between the ages of Sean-as-he-is-now and Sean-as-he-was-then & i relate to them both, in different ways. I don't think John Darnielle ever forgot what it was like to be a teenager.
Definite CW for suicide.
i am somewhere between the ages of Sean-as-he-is-now and Sean-as-he-was-then & i relate to them both, in different ways. I don't think John Darnielle ever forgot what it was like to be a teenager.
Definite CW for suicide.
Wolf in White Van is a tale about loneliness and normality. There are three or four layers to this story which are equally powerful, the plot and subplot interlace naturally as part of the same story and the jumps back and forth are almost indistinguishable. I think the confusion on the narrative is on purpose, because, the same way the protagonist of the book is often lost and clueless, the reader is as well. This established, for me, a sense of connection with the main character that is difficult to convey in many narratives.
Sean, the main character, manages a mail based MMORPG called Trace Italian. The stories that run in parallel there seem to be representations of himself, how he's out of answers of what he has done, or how he left some of his beloved ones behind while he survived, deeply injured for life. It is amazing the …
Wolf in White Van is a tale about loneliness and normality. There are three or four layers to this story which are equally powerful, the plot and subplot interlace naturally as part of the same story and the jumps back and forth are almost indistinguishable. I think the confusion on the narrative is on purpose, because, the same way the protagonist of the book is often lost and clueless, the reader is as well. This established, for me, a sense of connection with the main character that is difficult to convey in many narratives.
Sean, the main character, manages a mail based MMORPG called Trace Italian. The stories that run in parallel there seem to be representations of himself, how he's out of answers of what he has done, or how he left some of his beloved ones behind while he survived, deeply injured for life. It is amazing the subtleness that the author comes up with, and organically, you find yourself in the middle of everything.
Certainly not a book for everyone, and not for anytime.
i couldn’t put this down and the prose is very fine. but be warned it is in first person with an unreliable narrator. he omits things, and perhaps even lies by omission. so read this as if you are playing a game with someone you care about and find fascinating — but can’t trust to be completely forthcoming.
This is easily the best book I've read this year; probably the best book I've read in the last five. It's so strange to see so many pieces from my own adolescence arranged in such a heartbreaking fashion. Of course a person whose own life was defined by one single decision would create a game with virtually unlimited decisions for other lonely, lost people. I wish I could write a more cogent review, but frankly, I'm still kind of a blubbering mess.
This is easily the best book I've read this year; probably the best book I've read in the last five. It's so strange to see so many pieces from my own adolescence arranged in such a heartbreaking fashion. Of course a person whose own life was defined by one single decision would create a game with virtually unlimited decisions for other lonely, lost people. I wish I could write a more cogent review, but frankly, I'm still kind of a blubbering mess.
A first-person non-linear tale of an adolescent tragedy with physical deformity and chronic illness told in a background of rock and roll music (the author is a musician), an escapist text-based adventure game, and an underlying palpable creepy angst. Most of the dramatic tension is generated artificially by the slow revelation of the nature of an initial past event. Is there anything here when you are all done? Not for me, but it is well written.
A first-person non-linear tale of an adolescent tragedy with physical deformity and chronic illness told in a background of rock and roll music (the author is a musician), an escapist text-based adventure game, and an underlying palpable creepy angst. Most of the dramatic tension is generated artificially by the slow revelation of the nature of an initial past event. Is there anything here when you are all done? Not for me, but it is well written.
I liked a lot of this, but I found it ultimately unsatisfying.
Lyrical and interesting, as I'd expect from JD. I listened to the audiobook, and I think his weird rhythm suited the prose. Not my favorite book of the year, but I enjoyed it.
As with a lot of great magic systems and world-building in fantasy/sci-fi, Trace Italian itself seemed interesting enough for its own book.
Lyrical and interesting, as I'd expect from JD. I listened to the audiobook, and I think his weird rhythm suited the prose. Not my favorite book of the year, but I enjoyed it.
As with a lot of great magic systems and world-building in fantasy/sci-fi, Trace Italian itself seemed interesting enough for its own book.
3.5 stars. I'm a huge Mountain Goats fan, and I love the way you can really hear John Darnielle's voice in the writing. The main character would not be out of place in one of his songs. I enjoyed the way the story unravels, and the way that I could see the end coming, but was still surprised by the turns along the way. The best way I can think to describe it is that it's a choose-your-own-adventure story in reverse. It's also short (just over 200 pages), so easy to pick up and finish in a couple of days, if you're on the fence about it.
3.5 stars. I'm a huge Mountain Goats fan, and I love the way you can really hear John Darnielle's voice in the writing. The main character would not be out of place in one of his songs. I enjoyed the way the story unravels, and the way that I could see the end coming, but was still surprised by the turns along the way. The best way I can think to describe it is that it's a choose-your-own-adventure story in reverse. It's also short (just over 200 pages), so easy to pick up and finish in a couple of days, if you're on the fence about it.
I've never read anything like it - fascinating!
I've never read anything like it - fascinating!
