Chris asked:
"I know you are a 'read the series in order' guy, but could
an O'Connell novice jump in with The Resurrectionist
ok?"
Yeah, I can be kind of anal about reading in order. As for
this series, there is no narrative continuity. They stand
alone completely except for their setting, so there is no
narrative reason to read them in order. So I guess it comes
down to your tolerance of weirdness, as they get increasingly
out there as they go along, although this one isn't quite as
extreme as the last one, Word Made Flesh, which got really
surreal. So if you're the kind of guy who likes to immerse
himself slowly, start at the beginning, but start anywhere if
you don't mind jumping into the deep end.
That said, let me say a word about the weirdnes. Although
some of the imagery might be decribed as Lynchian, the
storytelling isn't. O'Connell's is not dream logic like
Lynch's. His books are entirely internally consistent. For
instance, even though some of his books have dealt with other
frames of perception (say, drug hallucinations), it's
entirely clear what is internal and what is external. It's
just that that external can get kind of extreme and weird in
an Expressionist/Gothic way.
Mark
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