S. La nave di Teseo - J. J. Abrams & Doug Dorst

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Metti mi piace e aggiungimi se ti fa piacere!

È un piccolo capolavoro editoriale, un bellissimo oggetto, un gioco in solitaria, l'inferno di un pazzoide paranoico, non leggetelo se soffrite di ansia.
No, non fa paura, non è di certo il suo intento.
Ma ti ruba il cervello, ti strappa dalla realtà è ti porta nel mondo di Jen e Eric. Dire altro sarebbe spoiler.
È la riproduzione di un libro degli anni '40 di una biblioteca universitaria: leggendo le pagine del libro La nave di Teseo si viene catapultati nel mondo di Jen, la studentessa che lavora come bibliotecaria presso l'Università, e di Eric, quello che fin dall'inizio ci viene presentato come un ex dottorando al lavoro sullo studio del presunto autore del libro in questione: V. M. Straka. Il libro in sè racconta la storia di un uomo identificato solo della lettera S. che, colpito da un'amnesia che gli ha fatto dimenticare tutta la sua vita, viene trasportato su una nave in compagnia di una ciurma di misteriosi ed inquietanti compagni. Una storia intrisa di un mistero che cercano di risolvere i due "protagonisti" interagendo letteralmente sul bordo pagina alternandosi in un incessante botta e risposta che si svolge in almeno tre piani temporali. Sepolti tra le pagine del libro è affascinante trovare, fisicamente, cartoline, lettere, fotografie...

La lettura non è facile e non è rilassante: è lunga e impegnativa ed impone un attenzione esagerata per ogni singola pagina nell'affrontare ogni singolo argomento.
Per quanto mi riguarda l'ho trovata appassionante soprattutto all'inizio dopodiché la narrazione diventa piuttosto noiosa e ripetitiva per poi riprendersi incredibilmente e lasciare letteralmente a bocca aperta fino all'ultima pagina.

I am, at this point, too disappointed and irritated by the Ship of Theseus part to even go back and do the mystery. A massive (and not to say expensive) let down. ( )

2.5 Stars

S. By J.J. Abrams is a beautiful hardback carefully distressed to look like an old Library book with its old book smell and stuffed full of notes, postcards, papers and bits and pieces.
When I received this book in the post I was pleasantly suprised with the faboulus concept and design. I loved the idea and could not wait to start this novel. I loved the margin notes to begin with and was fascinated to see how this story would play out.
I have to admit for all its gimmicks I soon found myself wondering is this book was just a pretty and fancy concept as I found the story quite disjointed and difficult to follow. It is a very slow read as there are two stories here. We have Jen and Erics story written in the margins of the book and the story of The Ship of Theseus in the main part of the book. I found it quite tedious to read the story within the book, then read the story within the margins and all the extra bits and pieces inserted throughout the book. To begin with this was intriguing and exciting but after about 80 pages I got bored of the book and its gimmicks and really found myself hating picking up this book to read as it was just too time consuming.

The concept, and design of this book is an excellent idea but for me there was not a strong enough plot to jusiify more that a 2.5 star rating.

If I was rating the book on its presentation and design, I would certainly give it five stars. But plot and writing is everyting to me and the phrase " All Flash and no substance" came to mind many times throughout this book.

Having read [b:Night Film|10112885|Night Film|Marisha Pessl|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363819140s/10112885.jpg|15182838] not too long ago, I think readers who enjoyed that book may find themselves drawn to this novel. ( )

This novel is difficult to describe. It is a sometimes macabre story of an amnestic man who is searching for a woman he might know, who has various adventures in which he gradually becomes a revolutionary assassin opposed to an evil capitalistic state. The title of the book is the name of a famous paradox, namely does the Ship of Theseus retain its identity when all of its constituent pieces are gradually replaced (Many other books also have this title.). The actual authors of the novel are J.J. Abrams (the television producer) and Doug Dorst. There is an extensive subtext concerning who the fictitious author, V.M. Straka, might be. The subtext occurs in fictitious translator’s notes and, most extraordinarily, in marginalia that have been printed in different colors and different hands by different fictitious characters who are reading the novel, commenting on it, passing it back and forth (the book is printed to look like a library book), and falling in love with each other. But that’s not all. The book has been published with occasional inserts resembling, for example, postcards from Brazil, personal handwritten letters, a map of Pollard State University (where the book resides) drawn on a napkin, a decoder device, a telegram, and a small photograph of a woman.
So, is it any good? I’m not sure. It is difficult to read. I first tried to read the text of the novel for a chapter then go back and read the marginalia, but this became tedious and I eventually read the text of the novel and the marginalia together. I had no interest in the discussion of the author’s identity, but I was mildly interested in the relationship among the characters who wrote in the margins. Anyway, ultimately, the most interesting thing to me was how does one produce a book like this? ( )

I'm pretty much the exact _target audience for this book. A huge fan of both meta-fiction and conspiracy theory books, and this one delivered both in spades. I think I enjoyed the book within the book more than the story in the margins, but they do complement very well and it made for a really fun reading experience. ( )