Narrative

Available on Amazon

Review by : J_ dem- (amazon.ca)

A whirlwind search for identity: A beautifully written work that contemplates the difficulty of balancing need and desire, or, rather, of finding the proper balance between both (particularly when filtered through relationships with others that always come with codings and expectations). The form of the book — its breakdown into experiments, returns, and moving on — captures the cyclical nature of a perpetually unrequited search for happiness and fulfillment which is only broken when it becomes a search for self, ending at the beginning (with a chance encounter with the protagonist’s first love) but with a refusal to cycle back: after chronicling the protagonist’s struggles with expectations and codes throughout, the book ends on a note of indeterminacy, and it is with indeterminacy and uncertainty that hope rushes in. The book is written in a polished prose that captures the confusion, despair, and elation at every turn. An accomplished first book.