Starter Villain
To begin with, I bought an earlier book by this author, and about halfway through, I realized I found the material too cute by half. Not to my tastes, exactly, but an evocative voice, one that I liked.
Found and followed the author on Social Media and got used to that, and there, he’s engaging as ever. So I thought I would give a different novel a shot, as this one had plenty of advance publicity behind it.
The last time I wore socks, I had to dress up for a funeral in Austin, a few days back. I remembered to pack socks, and as I dug them out of my bag, I looked, there was an Xmas pattern on the socks themselves, dress socks. Only wore shoes (boots) for the visitation, services, and a brief graveside passage for internment. Pulling the socks on, though, I had to pull one sock through itself, as it was inside out. In doing so, I realized that, in part, that’s what this author does, pulls a particular genre or idea about roles inside out, like reversing the single sock’s orientation, pulling it inside out from one end to the other. Not quite a möbius strip, either, just reversed, inside out.
I’m unsure, but to a certain extent, I would guess this pays homage to a James Bone-like kind of novel, and I’m unsure of the proper taxonomy. How to characterize and categorize it? Don’t know.
It was fun, inventive, a level of self-aware sarcasm and enough deep plotting to make it really good. Didn’t see that coming, well, maybe.
Very enjoyable reading, loved it from the first page, and I would wonder if there is an intentional level of symbolism and satire, or if that was just a happy by-product. Either way? Good book. Different, and would probably benefit from re-reading it at a later date.
I wonder just how much is fiction.
