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Criticism

Review of The Perfect Gray

December 14, 2020

This review of The Perfect Gray is obviously not mine – though it would’ve been an interesting exercise to try to review my own novel. Still, this particular review of The Perfect Gray is offered by my friend and fellow academic, author, and creative-writing advisor, Igor da Silva Livramento. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English. You can also find him on LinkedIn.

Important Note: At the beginning of the process, when I asked Igor if he’d like to review The Perfect Gray, I set down two imperative requirements: i) he would have complete editorial freedom; ii) similarly, he would have full freedom to critique The Perfect Gray as he objectively saw it. What follows from this point on, is his personal, independent review of The Perfect Gray as he saw it. I have only offered some very minor formatting recommendations, for consistency within the blog. I have also suggested the added links to other blog posts.

The Perfect Gray Novel

Unassuming title, aye? To be fair, it is accurate by my book (pun intended).

I must admit: I didn’t expect it to be such a good novel. I simply had to drop everything I was reading to beat The Perfect Gray as quickly as possible. It had been over a year since I’d read something so intense, exciting, memorable – simply unforgettable.

review of the perfect gray
The Perfect Gray, paperback cover
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Reality in Frankenstein: Dreams and Temporal Distortion

November 9, 2020

Note: the following article on reality in Frankenstein is a modified excerpt (pp. 150-152) from my doctoral dissertation, “Time is Everything with Him”: The Concept of the Eternal Now in Nineteenth-Century Gothic, which is available for free from the repository of the Tampere University Press. For a list of my other academic publications, presentations, etc. feel free to visit the relevant page on the main Home for Fiction website.

Reality in Frankenstein is a matter of temporal perception. On more than one occasion Victor Frankenstein alludes to a distorted sense of time, which effectively precludes the possibility of defining reality. As the grieving scientist admits, “[s]ix years had elapsed, passed as a dream” (F 61).

However, the most powerful sense of loss of reality for Frankenstein comes after his friend, Henry Clerval, is found dead. The hapless man mentions how everything “passed like a dream from [his] memory” (F 135), and a little later, while in prison, he insists saying “if it all be true, if indeed I did not dream” (F 136).

Furthermore, he confesses that his entire life passed before his eyes like a dream, causing him to doubt whether any of it was real, “for it never presented itself to [his] mind with the force of reality” (F 136). 

reality in Frankenstein
Reality in Frankenstein is directly related to the perception of time
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Review of In Absurdia, by Glenn Whalan

September 7, 2020

In Absurdia, by Glenn Whalan, is a novel; sort of. In Absurdia, by Glenn Whalan, is an experimental-fiction novel; sort of. And this is a review of In Absurdia, by Glenn Whalan; (wait for it) sort of.

Quite honestly, this must be among the most unorthodox reviews I’ve ever had to write, not because I feel particularly ambivalent about the book I decided to review, but because I feel speechless – as in, literally speechless; I have so few things to talk about.

This, as we will see, contains hints both for the book and against it. However, even that is not as clear-cut as I’d like to make it sound. Concept such as “book”, “for”, or “against” are not something that seems to be in accord with what In Absurdia is all about.

in absurdia
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