Long has paled that sunny sky: Echoes fade and memories die. --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking GlassA fallen suburb where the sun never rises, a boy who howls, a girl who wants to escape if just for one night, shady people, shady places, shady pasts. Um, heck yes. Do any of you visualize scenes of books while you’re reading them? I often do and while I was reading This Is Shyness, my visualization was in the neo-noir, graphic novel style a la Sin City. I saw desaturated black and white scenes with splashes of bright color like the pink ukelele or the deep red of bloody knuckles. I’d really like to see a graphic novel adaptation of This is Shyness of at least a few scenes. One definition of surreal is: “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream.” That about sums up this book perfectly. There’s a dream-like quality to the entire book and it works much like a dream on the reader, lulling you into accepting as fact all of the bizarre and quirky fantastical elements of Shyness without batting an eye. At least it did for me. I got swept away by the weirdness, submerged in the surrealism. I thought the power lied in that much of the world of Shyness was based in reality with just a few masterful tweaks. My acceptance gave my reading experience a Through the Looking Glass feel, whimsical, strange, unsettling but enchanting. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading the sequel. Oh and speaking of visualization, go ahead and google image search tarsier....to better imagine one dropping on your head/never sleep again.
