Why AP?
This book has been an interesting, and sometimes difficult journey to get through for both the characters and me (the reader). To wholly explain the journey it would be best to craft a map of the different stories within the story; the order of them and how they connect to one another. Obviously, I cannot do that in a blog post, but I will do my best to give a sense of what it is like to read it and why it deserves to be AP.
As mentioned in previous posts, it begins with Adam Ewing in "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing." When the book moves onto "Letters From Zedelghem" with Robert Frobisher, he finds the first half of Adam Ewing's journal, pointing out that it doesn't seem to be an original journal, "...but who would bother forging such a journal, and why?" The details of Frobisher's suspicions are understood at the end of the novel. Moving into the next section, "Half-Lives--The First Luisa Rey Mystery," we have heard of a man named Sixsmith that Frobisher's letters were sent to. When we meet Luisa Rey in this section, she bumps into a man named Rufus Sixsmith in the elevator. Sixsmith is murdered roughly halfway through this section; remember that. Next, we follow a man who doesn't seem to relate to or present much importance to the story in "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish." We follow Timothy Cavendish without understanding much of his relation to the story until he finds, similar to Robert Frobisher, the first half of Half-Lives. As an editor for Cavendish Publishing, he begins to work to edit the book. Pushing us far into the future, "An Orison of Sonmi-451" follows a fabricant of this futuristic society. At the end of the section, Sonmi-451 watches a disney (a movie) titled The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. ...sounds familiar...
The middle of the book holds a story I still do not really understand titled "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After." It is written in a very hard to read an understand way by textualizing spoken southern dialogue. Though it does connect greatly with the previous story in how the main character Zachry finds Sonmi's orison and even is visited by Sonmi in a hologram(?). Again, this section was very hard to understand.
From this point onward the story progresses back to the beginning. We experience Sonmi-451's journey and uncover it's resolution. We see Timothy Cavendish escape Aurora House. We see Luisa Rey succeed in bringing down Seaboard's HYDRA reactor project. We follow Frobisher's attempts to succeed over Ayr's power until he leaves. And finally, we get to see Ewing rescued from Dr. Goose's attempt to kill him and return home in the end.
As I imagine, all of this seems a little scattered and hard to understand. If I were to try and explain the entire book, it would take pages, and pages more for even a summary. This novel is so beautifully written. Each diary entry from Ewing, each letter from Frobisher, each question from Sonmi-451's interviewer, all of these feel so substantial and detailed that they alone could each be their own works. Just to follow the story takes an AP mind, but to follow it and understand it to even some degree takes a lot of thinking and understanding. I would recommend this book to everyone.
As mentioned in previous posts, it begins with Adam Ewing in "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing." When the book moves onto "Letters From Zedelghem" with Robert Frobisher, he finds the first half of Adam Ewing's journal, pointing out that it doesn't seem to be an original journal, "...but who would bother forging such a journal, and why?" The details of Frobisher's suspicions are understood at the end of the novel. Moving into the next section, "Half-Lives--The First Luisa Rey Mystery," we have heard of a man named Sixsmith that Frobisher's letters were sent to. When we meet Luisa Rey in this section, she bumps into a man named Rufus Sixsmith in the elevator. Sixsmith is murdered roughly halfway through this section; remember that. Next, we follow a man who doesn't seem to relate to or present much importance to the story in "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish." We follow Timothy Cavendish without understanding much of his relation to the story until he finds, similar to Robert Frobisher, the first half of Half-Lives. As an editor for Cavendish Publishing, he begins to work to edit the book. Pushing us far into the future, "An Orison of Sonmi-451" follows a fabricant of this futuristic society. At the end of the section, Sonmi-451 watches a disney (a movie) titled The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. ...sounds familiar...
The middle of the book holds a story I still do not really understand titled "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After." It is written in a very hard to read an understand way by textualizing spoken southern dialogue. Though it does connect greatly with the previous story in how the main character Zachry finds Sonmi's orison and even is visited by Sonmi in a hologram(?). Again, this section was very hard to understand.
From this point onward the story progresses back to the beginning. We experience Sonmi-451's journey and uncover it's resolution. We see Timothy Cavendish escape Aurora House. We see Luisa Rey succeed in bringing down Seaboard's HYDRA reactor project. We follow Frobisher's attempts to succeed over Ayr's power until he leaves. And finally, we get to see Ewing rescued from Dr. Goose's attempt to kill him and return home in the end.
As I imagine, all of this seems a little scattered and hard to understand. If I were to try and explain the entire book, it would take pages, and pages more for even a summary. This novel is so beautifully written. Each diary entry from Ewing, each letter from Frobisher, each question from Sonmi-451's interviewer, all of these feel so substantial and detailed that they alone could each be their own works. Just to follow the story takes an AP mind, but to follow it and understand it to even some degree takes a lot of thinking and understanding. I would recommend this book to everyone.
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