(no subject)

[tinyjo]

I've just finished reading Set This House In Order by Matt Ruff. It's an excellent book in my opinion; a fascinating idea well executed and beautifully written. I just don't understand why it's up for the ousfg award. I couldn't see any genre elements at all - it's outstanding, yes, but it's mainstream fiction.

The other thing I found rather interesting was what I assume is a new idea by publishers to give books a bit of extra interest. At the end was a small section entitled "P.S.", which had an interview with the author, a summary of some of the critical reaction and a short article summarizing some of the position of MPD in the psychiatric world today plus a couple of other bits I didn't read. It was interesting, but it was mostly a little light for my taste - I would have preferred particularly the critical section to be a proper critical essay rather than just a summary of gushing comments. Still, I wonder if it's something we'll be seeing more of.

Comments

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

To me it's fairly clearly fantasy--the sequences set inside Andrew and Mouse's heads aren't based on any kind of reality, they're made up out of whole cloth to represent their psychological condition. It's not outrageously sf, but it counts, I think.

And I agree about the PS sections.