Lunar Park - first impressions...
So, I've started reading Lunar Park... It's definitely different, but one expects these kinds of things when the author in question hasn't released a novel in well over five years. Considering the circumstances, I'd say change is a given.
It's made interesting firstly in that it's the first novel Ellis has done in the past-tense, and secondly in that he's experimenting with themes and literary techniques which - although not necessarily avant-garde in themselves - are most certainly firsts in his career. That being said, the narrative form of Lunar Park falls somewhere in between the traditional definitions of both the roman à clef and the technique of metafiction. It also seems to have strong autobiographical leanings - although I highly suspect, considering the outrageousness of the main character's life, that Ellis is again playing with themes of narrative hyper-reality and defamiliarisation as he did in Glamorama.
Stay tuned for my final conclusions... Soon.
It's made interesting firstly in that it's the first novel Ellis has done in the past-tense, and secondly in that he's experimenting with themes and literary techniques which - although not necessarily avant-garde in themselves - are most certainly firsts in his career. That being said, the narrative form of Lunar Park falls somewhere in between the traditional definitions of both the roman à clef and the technique of metafiction. It also seems to have strong autobiographical leanings - although I highly suspect, considering the outrageousness of the main character's life, that Ellis is again playing with themes of narrative hyper-reality and defamiliarisation as he did in Glamorama.
Stay tuned for my final conclusions... Soon.