The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee: His Researches

Rating:
Summary: Convoluted Story
Review: "The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee: His Researches" started off very well. It was pretty in prose, it seemed to be heading off to an excellent finish. Suddenly, there was sheet music, which related to the story, but seemed sort of confusing. Next, the character of Nicholas Dee started writing his own book, with a change in font to differentiate between the stories.

Just as the book starts to redeem itself from the strange and frequent interruptions, the main characters are suddenly whisked off to a different land, literally, to do research, running from the police but not running from the police, involved in a "hustler" ring but not involved in a "hustler" ring. Meanwhile, the story of the research into an Opera House and the characters becomes more and more part of what is already a confusing story. It seemed as though there were five different plots running through the story, and while they were supposed to be set up as though they were parallel, it didn't come across this way. Instead, it became a convoluted mess, with me wanting to skip the less interesting stories (opera, his novel about insurance (hardly an appealing subject matter) and concentrate directly on Nicholas Dee and his daily life.

It started out with an interesting subtext, hinting at great things to come, but never really delivering the payoff. Jumping too quickly into a soap opera drama where police officers are drugged, characters seem to just exist to perpetuate the "mirrored" story of Nicholas Dee and the opera house.

A very very strange story, and if you feel up to trying to decipher this tangled web, I encourage you to do so.

Rating:
Summary: Convoluted Story
Review: "The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee: His Researches" started off very well. It was pretty in prose, it seemed to be heading off to an excellent finish. Suddenly, there was sheet music, which related to the story, but seemed sort of confusing. Next, the character of Nicholas Dee started writing his own book, with a change in font to differentiate between the stories.

Just as the book starts to redeem itself from the strange and frequent interruptions, the main characters are suddenly whisked off to a different land, literally, to do research, running from the police but not running from the police, involved in a "hustler" ring but not involved in a "hustler" ring. Meanwhile, the story of the research into an Opera House and the characters becomes more and more part of what is already a confusing story. It seemed as though there were five different plots running through the story, and while they were supposed to be set up as though they were parallel, it didn't come across this way. Instead, it became a convoluted mess, with me wanting to skip the less interesting stories (opera, his novel about insurance (hardly an appealing subject matter) and concentrate directly on Nicholas Dee and his daily life.

It started out with an interesting subtext, hinting at great things to come, but never really delivering the payoff. Jumping too quickly into a soap opera drama where police officers are drugged, characters seem to just exist to perpetuate the "mirrored" story of Nicholas Dee and the opera house.

A very very strange story, and if you feel up to trying to decipher this tangled web, I encourage you to do so.

Rating:
Summary: Ideal if you love the ACT of reading
Review: Matthew Stadler is a reader, and his novels are a joy to immerse oneself in for this reason. I disagree with the assessment that The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee book is plodding, difficult or even "experimental." Why would I want to read a book that is structured, plotted, and populated so sterertypically that I won't even need to pay attention to it while I'm reading it?

I don't read to carve chunks of time out of my own life. I read because stumbling across writers like Matthew Stadler is a thrill that can't be duplicated by any other activity. To see my own unorganized musings perfectly crystalized on the page is fantastic. I'm far too lazy to be a writer, so I'm very grateful to Stadler for doing the work for us all. His own words, in discussing Proust, aptly sum up my feelings about what makes The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee ideal reading:

But what if reading involves a dissipation into languor and ease, rather than any kind of mounted effort toward victory? What if the book is our final and only destination, a place we live in rather than "get through"?

Rating:
Summary: Ideal if you love the ACT of reading
Review: Matthew Stadler is a reader, and his novels are a joy to immerse oneself in for this reason. I disagree with the assessment that The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee book is plodding, difficult or even "experimental." Why would I want to read a book that is structured, plotted, and populated so sterertypically that I won't even need to pay attention to it while I'm reading it?

I don't read to carve chunks of time out of my own life. I read because stumbling across writers like Matthew Stadler is a thrill that can't be duplicated by any other activity. To see my own unorganized musings perfectly crystalized on the page is fantastic. I'm far too lazy to be a writer, so I'm very grateful to Stadler for doing the work for us all. His own words, in discussing Proust, aptly sum up my feelings about what makes The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee ideal reading:

But what if reading involves a dissipation into languor and ease, rather than any kind of mounted effort toward victory? What if the book is our final and only destination, a place we live in rather than "get through"?