We might wonder if it means anything even as we read except for the clues that Magary secreted in the first few pages. Just as Ben thinks he's about to escape, a second man, also with the face of a Rottweiler, appears to flank him and, while he does get away, it's only to realise that he's not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy, and all bets are most certainly off.įrom there, it gets progressively stranger and there's little point me delving into the details because they won't mean anything here anyway.
On spying Ben, this apparent murderer chases him with a large butcher's knife. He stumbles on a man with the face of a Rottweiler, who is dragging the corpse of a girl out of a shed, a corpse with no feet. And, as quickly as page 11, it all goes horribly wrong.
He decides to kill a little time by taking a walk through the surrounding Poconos, even though the clueless clerk was unaware of the trail he finds. Our protagonist is Ben, who may or may not have a last name, and he's from Maryland though he isn't there as the novel begins he's checking into a hotel in Pennsylvania, 75 miles out of New York City, on a business trip to meet a vendor. I can start in on a synopsis too, though I shouldn't go too far. Magary is Homer if he might be possessed by Kafka. Sure, it has suggestive language in the back cover blurb, not merely where it describes a 'world of man-eating giants, demons, and colossal insects' but where it says 'odyssey' and 'quest' too. It's general fiction, the sort that has 'A Novel' somewhere on the front cover (which, hey, it does). I think I can say that it's a fantastic novel, both in quality and material covered, but it's not a fantasy. But it's a tough one to review because spoilers.
It would be a great choice for a book club discussion, with a selection of intelligent readers who have all devoured the book debating each other as to what it means and what it's really about. This is an exceedingly difficult book to review.
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