Reviews and Comments

I wrote this review while I was halfway through the book. Now that I've finished it, I think it's perfectly appropriate to post it as my review.

I'll add one important thing: this book changed me. It opened me to a new way of interacting with strangers, especially strangers who are on the fringes of normal society. It made me a braver, better person.

--

I've been reading Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren since February, with interruptions for other books, because I have found it so hard to get into. Somewhere around page 150 or 200, I started finding it incredibly compelling. Now, I can't seem to put it down. I couldn't really tell you what it's about, except that it takes place in a city where an unspecified disaster has taken place, and everyone lives in a kind of cluster of self-formed communities of different types, money's no good, clocks don't work, there are two moons, and geography won't stay put, and it's possible that the close point of view character is insane and that's why the scenery is so unstable. He's also a poet and there's a lot of really funny insider baseball about poets and poetry communities and the mental state of creativity.

It's possible the only reason I'm able to put up with the weird structure and loose level of sense this book makes because I've read a bunch of Joanna Russ' experimental work lately. (I think they might have been friends? Certainly they seem to have influenced each other. One of the characters has a book by Joanna Russ on his bookshelf) There's lots and lots of really explicit sex, but it's not erotic. At least it's less disturbing that the sex in Gravity's Rainbow (so far).

Dhalgren confronts race, sexuality, and class in ways that I haven't seen in other science fiction. It's not preachy and it's not easy. It feels like wading into a real tense situation. Actually, it reminds me of Repo Man a little bit, too.

I'm 300 pages in (out of 800) and I sort of want to tell everyone to read it, but also I know it's the kind of book that might just bore or frustrate a lot of people who like such things as plot and sense. I think there is a story, but it's more of a mood than a plot. Anyway, it's a challenging book, and definitely not a light read.

I finished Too Like the Lighting on July 5th, and then the next day started reading it again from the beginning. It's now July 12th. The second read was slower and I'm glad I did it. It also made me raise the star rating from 4 to 5 stars. I've never done that before - finished a book and then read it again immediately.

Many reviewers have commented that the book is slow going or difficult to follow. I can't agree. Then again, maybe you shouldn't trust me. I'm one of these awful literary types and I've read continental philosophy. I've read Gravity's Rainbow and The Book of the New Sun is my favorite science fiction book series of all time. Although, once the sequel to Too Like the Lightning Comes out, maybe Terra Ignota will take its place. It's that good.

On the first read of this book, I focused on the world building. What a world! I was so busy that enjoying it that I missed a lot of subtle hints about the plot. On the re-read, a lot of off-hand comments took on deeper, and frankly deeply sinister meanings. I can't tell you more without spoiling this book. Other reviewers have done a good job talking about both the world-building and philosophy. All I can add is to tell you that there are a lot more layers here than you might think at first, even beyond the richness you can see right away.