Title: A fascinating, comical allegory .... but beware
Product review: It took me two readings to appreciate the remarkably imaginative and multi-layered writing of this book. On first reading, I was too caught up in a sense of dread, waiting for the hammer to fall on "our hero." Now I realize he isn't a hero at all, just a narrator to whom seemingly incomprehensible experiences, conversations, and landscapes appear, which more or less come into focus by the end of the book. The comical and absurd nature of much of this is what makes the book an enjoyable, thoughtful experience, but it took a second reading for me to appreciate it.My one caveat is that please, please, do not read or take seriously the hyper-modernist introduction by Denis Donoghue. He is focused on symbolism and a humorless Northrup Frye-type analysis, and so misled me that it took another try to appreciate all the human comedy of this book. The phrase "refusal of human warmth" at the end of his piece should have given it away.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
