From the very beginning of this novel, I’d have to say that it’s so unusually done that it has certainly sparked an interest in me. I’m not usually one who goes for novels about castles or imaginatory games like Terminal Zeus, however, there is something about The Keep that keeps me intrigued.
I’d also admit that through the first twenty pages or so I was wondering how in the world this novel got published with such poor structure and grammar, but upon learning that Ray, a prisoner in an English class, was writing this novel I thought it all made sense. This novel seems to comment alot on how we as a society view writing and the structure process shown and just how difficult it could be to write a novel or how hard it is to sometimes get your point across. For example, this was shown in the text through the lines, “He was heading into memory number two, I might as well tell you that straight up, because how I’m supposed to get him in and out of all these memories in a smooth way so nobody notices all the coming and going I don’t know” (12). If this were writing done from the perspective of Egan we would think this was awful writing, however coming from Ray’s point of view we see the struggle that a person is going through in trying to get across to the reader the difficulties in explaining his character’s thoughts.
I think the biggest challange with this novel is going to be trying to keep all of the characters and which layer of the novel they are associated with correct. I’m looking forward to seeing how this will all develop, hopefully getting more of Ray’s personal story.
I was also really confused when I started reading because I was focusing on the way the story was written too. I thought it was interesting that our expectations change as soon as we realize who is writing the story. You’re never going to believe this but I’m not sure exactly how word this thought, but I’ll give it a shot! If Ray’s story were published as it is, I think we would focus on the writing quality and say that it was not a good story and dismiss it. However, by Egan’s having a second plot and narrator, I gave Ray’s story a second chance and I’m now interested in where it is going plot wise. SO….maybe Egan is trying to comment on writing quality and show that stories can still be engaging even if they are not overly well-written, if we as readers can get past the high school english lessons we’ve had drilled into our brains?
Comment by fischerr546 — April 2, 2009 @ 12:36 am
The grammar and structure threw me off as well when I first read it and to this day it is still hard for me to keep up with it. I think this novel definetely goes beyond imaginary castles and “Terminal Zeus” and it gets the reader thinking more on several different aspects.
Comment by kmills923 — April 2, 2009 @ 6:11 pm