I have long thought that John Crowley did not entirely inhabit the same universe I was born into. Since the first novel of his I opened, in fact. Having read "Aegypt" that thought has become certainty. Crowley is a visitor to, not a resident, of this "normal" continuum.
Only thus, could his magnificent ability to weave the plot of a novel from one plane of reality, into another, and back again, have come to be ---and to leave the reader a bit unsure which "reality" is really "reality".
Is the main protagonist of "Aegypt" Pierce Moffet, somewhat bewildered teacher at a New York City college, seeking a different life in the countryside? Is it Rosie Mucho, disenchanted wife whose life has not developed the way she had envisioned it, desperately seeking more? Or is it Sixteenth Century cleric and astronomer Giordano Bruno, embracing new modes of thought which will eventually see him executed for heresy?
Or is "Aegypt" the story of the world itself, on the cusp and in transition from what it once was, with one set of physical laws, into what it is now, with entirely different rules? I suspect the answer may be different for each individual reader. The only certainty is that once this novel is picked up and begun, the reader will continue it to the end. No other course could be contemplated. Enjoy!
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