Customer Reviews

Ultrameta, A Fractal Novel (Paperback)

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This is the novel Samuel Richardson might have written had he been born a few hundred years later, been writing for a different class and been influenced by his dreams as much as the society around him.

It is an ambitious book that defies the pigeonhole--that might be a portmanteau novel, a series of dense sketches, an epistolary novel or something entirely different. Not meaning that it is so radical that one does not know where to shelve it, but more in the sense that, like an author such as Ernesto Sabato, it is as likely to appeal to a lover of what people call `literature' as a fan of horror or science fiction. Its rhythm is off-kilter and, while avoiding cleverness, it never fails to be intelligent.

Think Borges or Italo Calvino with shades of Dickens. The language jumps from the literate to something one might find on the streets of Glasgow (Huv ye goat a light there mate?). The milieu is, if not modern or postmodern, something not far from it, while rushing forward with clear-cut good storytelling as we sample a round of reincarnations married to city-scapes, Poe-like romance and an intensely cerebral quality that lends itself to all these classic literature allusions I keep throwing about.

At heart though, good books are almost always like this, like some elephant felt at by blind men--one feeling its trunk, another its side, a third its tale--each calling it something different, each getting a different sensation from it.

Thompson has clearly put a lot of himself in this book. The key figure, Stark, a University Professor, is not some kind of grey, shapeless spot that is inertly placed in different situations and given that false "character-building", which itself makes characters seem like pre-meditated petty crimes, but rather a philosopher who thinks about politics, economics, life and death--a human being. He is one of those types we can all relate to because we all reason and feel as much as act. Our characters aren't built, but born. And being able to relate to Stark, a man drifting from one phantasmagorical world to the next, worlds which, while teeming with a baroque sort of life, are tinged with loneliness and tragedy, makes the story all the more potent. There is a real emotional quality here, that I believe would be difficult to feel indifferent towards.

A word should also be said for the interior layout. The chapter plan is circular, almost alchemical, and each chapter begins with beautifully crafted seal by David Rix.

This book was published in 2009. Out of all the books I have read from this year, from small press to large (and I do read a lot), I would say this is certainly one of the two or three best. Read it.

Is Douglas Thompson (aka Alexander Stark, the chief protagonist) the messiah, or just a very naughty boy? An extraordinary piece of writing which defies categorisation. It communicates in the language of dreams: sometimes almost literal; often with vivid and surreal imagery. It is a 'story' without beginning or end - like jumping aboard a moving train only to jump off again after 300 or so pages of dreamtelling. The story is, of course, THE story. That is, the clues to our existence, like a trail of breadcrumbs, but leading where? This tale offers few if any judgements or lessons, preferring instead to allow us the freedom to interpret in language of our own dreams. But if there is a lesson it is 'simply' that we have been here before and we will be here again. And where is 'here'? Ultrameta, of course....