Umbrella

Umbrella may now become the greatest novel I've ever read; until now it was Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, which I now have to go back and re-re-re-read. Many others have compared Umbrella to Gravity's and the comparisons are apt. Both works are brilliant, both require you read carefully and with a dictionary at your side (and maybe an additional medical dictionary in the case of Umbrella), both take risks with the numerous interconnections, digressions and changes of scene or viewpoint and both try to explain the meaning of modern life, including the impact of technology on personality. My take on Gravity's has always been that sentence by sentence it was the best ever but, at the end of the book, I really didn't understand it. Umbrella may now be the better book IMO because sentence by sentence it is superb and, at the end of the book, I do feel that I understand well, much of it. I've now read Umbrella three times: once on my ipad, and then reading in hard cover during the day and re-reading much of the same again on my ipad at night. That immediate reinforcement of what I just read helped immeasurably. Of course, i could still read it again profitably. Umbrella, however, has its problems. Most importantly, Self's gimmicky refusal to use paragraphs or chapters just doesn't add anything. Not that I am against what he is attempting, to force the reader into an immediate "thisness" (my word) of what is happening and the connections to memory, to the concept of time, and to the other characters. Perhaps if he had actually changed scenes and perspectives in a way that eventually made sense, say the same event as viewed by different characters, or an event triggering a memory of the same character, i would say well it was difficult but in the end it worked. Here I think in the end, the formatting, actually lack of formatting, did not work. I do not think the reader receives a payoff for the pain she has to go through. Finally, there are just too many confusion-causing sentences that are not later addressed or explained. Most of the questions I wrote in the margins as I read still were not answered at the end. Just one example, I did happen to know who "Ronnie" is--brilliant but controversial psychiatric theorist R.D. Laing, who rose to fame, especially in the mental health counter culture, in the 70s. But if a reader didn't know that at the beginning, she still wouldn't know it at the end. All in all a superb work. I absolutely recommend and i think it is important to read in a physical book, as opposed to ipad--ipad is ok for an additional reading. But Self too often played with the readers in a way that ultimately was a bit unfair. Now, I have to get onto Gravity's again! Read more

This is a tough read, being all stream of conscious and stuff. But on the other hand, the style seems to lend empathy to both the doctor and his patients who are in a parkisonsian frozen or tic-ish state. Stick with it, you will be all the richer for it. Read more

In many ways "Umbrella" is a frustrating book in that it takes the first 30 or so pages to work out how to read it. The characters are often difficult to distinguish from one another and the text jumps from the present to the past without warning. This is often confusing. There are no obvious chapters in the book so that it is difficult to choose a spot to leave off for a pause. The reader must either read the book from cover to cover at one sitting or accept that a certain amount of back tracking will be required when the book is taken up again. Despite the frustrations I actually enjoyed the book. A good review should state clearly the reasons that the book is a good read. The merits of this book are difficult to analyse. The main character is rather irritating, the structure of the book is annoying and the subject is excessively morbid. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort to "get into" the book to find that the plot holds the readers attention to the end. Read more

An amazing novel from this quirky and brilliantly able writer, Will Self.Surely the winner of this years Man Booker 2012. It is a challenging read from beginning to end ,having no chapters, but emerging in a constant stream of consciousness. Like a dance it weaves characters, time,places ,prose and song into a strange ,yet compelling tale. I advise reading a book review first maybe, to get some idea of the story line before you start. Unless, that is , you enjoy an intellectual challenge .Also, keep at hand a medical dictionary to help with the psychiatric terminology.Even my kindle dictionary balked at some words. Busner,a psychiatrist ,newly arrived at Friern mental asylum in North London,a rambling victorian monstrosity, comes across a patient called Audrey Death.Born in the 1890's, she fell victim to the 'sleeping sickness'- encephalitis lethargica at the end of the first world war.Discovering other such cases within the hospital, Busner attempts to bring them back from their catatonic state.In doing so , we are swept back to the first world war into the experiences of Audrey and her two brothers Stanley and Albert. The story is expressed through the eyes of these main characters .It swings without warning from one to the other ,and spans 50 years. an amazing writing feat. wonderful in its comlexity. masterfully done. Read more

I bought a lot of books and in fact there have been hundreds of them on my shelf that never had a chance to be opened. This book has its luck to be selected randomly, but after 30 pages of very patient struggle I was not sure if I could, or should, continue. Since the main plot is revealed in the very first beginning, the only thing to do is to learn to appreciate or accept the wandering, meandering flows of avalanche of thoughts and weird ubiquitous italic words. Well, I can fully understand the ambition of the author and do adore that very much. However I am fully aware that life is short and wonderful books are everywhere. I can not say that if this book is THAT good that it deserves my limited precious reading time. I must say sorry to put it aside. Read more