The Raw Shark Texts: Steven Hall
This is a review on a book re-read. I confess, when I first picked up this book, it was because of the cover - the spine looked very different from any of the other books on the library shelf, and the pop-out shark decided it for me. The back cover, in monotype:
First things first, stay calm.
If you are reading this, I'm not around anymore. Take the phone and speed dial 1. Tell the woman who answers that you are Eric Sanderson. The woman is Dr Randle. She'll understand what has happened and you will be able to see her straight away. Take the car keys and drive the yellow jeep to Dr Randle's house. If you haven't found it yet, there's a map in the envelope - it isn't too far and it's not hard to find.
Dr Randle will be able to answer all your questions. It's very important that you go straight away. Do not pass go. Do not explore. Do not collect two hundred pounds.
The house keys are hanging from a nail on the banister at the bottom of the stairs. Don't forget them.
With regret and also hope,
The First Eric Sanderson
This is the story of the Second Eric Sanderson, you could say. He wakes up on the floor of his bedroom with no memory of who he used to be and who he was. When he visits the doctor, she tells him he has a rare condition, dissociative amnesia. And then he begins receiving letters, all signed by "The First Eric Sanderson", warning him that the doctor's assessment is wrong, very wrong, and it's something else that's caused him to lose, well, himself.
Hall describes the flow of information from one mind to another - the images you see which are transferred from the writer's mind to the page to your mind when you read, for example - and calls it a current, a waterway. In this there are creatures who survive on concepts (the book lampshades this slightly, remarking that it is unlikely that these sorts of places are sterile, like most places on Earth). One of the most vicious - the shark of the cover - the Ludovician, has been eating away at his memories.
The story is told partly in flashback, describing the First Eric Sanderson and his girlfriend, Clio Aames, as they vacation in Greece. In an attempt to find answers, Eric journeys through England, trying to track down a Dr. Fidorous mentioned in one of the First Eric Sanderson's letters.
What was rather unusual in this book was the actual images of the Ludovician, made out of letters, as well as other 'conceptual fish', like the Luxophage. Some of the letters that the Second Eric Sanderson receives are also reproduced in the book. There are also un-chapters, one for each real chapter in the book, scattered on the internet and elsewhere. 45-seconds of the Lightbulb Fragment, a long video of a single bare lightbulb flashing on and off, is on Youtube here.
I liked Hall's prose very much; his sentences were a bit overly long sometimes, but described the mood of the book wonderfully. Despite the length of the novel, there are really only a handful of characters, and the utter isolation of Eric from what would be The Real World - it is a contemporary setting - made it easier to slip into the story. The premise is very persuasive, but it does require some suspension of disbelief. The ending is an ambiguous ball of ambiguity, and it is up to the reader to decide what happens.
10/10. Recommended to anyone who likes contemporary fiction with a twist.
Cross-posted all over the place; apologies to the people who will see it multiple times.
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