What's it about, you ask? Plotwise, the broad outline is that a genius mother, Sibylla, is raising her genius son, Ludo (aged 5 through 13?), who is looking for a father. Ludo finds his biological father, but he's kind of a lightweight, so L goes out to recruit more suitable candidates. The first third or so of the book is told from Sib's point-of-view, until Ludo turns 6, at which point the story switches over to him.
But the really fun part of the book isn't the plot, but the way the story is told. For one, it's in lots of different languages: Most notably Japanese---there are bits of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai threaded throughout the story. But also Greek (as young L learns to read The Iliad) and French and Inuit etc. Usually these bits are translated, but not always (the reason they're there is explained in the text, which I'll get to in a later post). For two, it uses lots of other texts, such as Kurosawa's movies, as referents, both for structure and for theme. For three, there are a lot of fun ideas developed through stories about the candidate fathers. For four, it's a very erudite novel (which is good, because I like puzzles), but ultimately comes down pretty hard on erudition (I think; not sure yet).
I'm going to do some posts about these things, mostly as an excuse to put together what's going on for myself. I don't expect it to be particularly groundbreaking analysis (there is lots of other good writing about the book around, like the stuff by "Tom" in the comments of many posts here). But it's taken me this long to get this far, so.
From now on, I'll assume you've read the book, so SPOILER WARNING and all that. It's out of print, but not hard to get a copy on amazon (and be sure to tip the author on her blog!). So go read it! Now! And then come back for this (to be updated):
- Fragments
- The role of Seven Samurai
- ...
