Wierdest book ever...

As I mentioned earlier I started reading Cory Doctorow's "Someone comes to town, someone leaves town". I must admit that this is one of the wierdest books I have ever read in my life.

The initial part of the book is preaty much a description of a grand home improvement project. It was kindoff reminiscent of Huysmans description of the excentric home in "Against Nature". Of course this project is less decadent, but similarly excentric and strange. Alan - the main character completely renovates an old house, and fills it with thousands of books in custom made, lightproof, dustproof, bookshelves that cover every single wall. Why? Because he decided that he should write a novel... And apparently the first thing one should do before writing a novel is to buy and renovate a house to ensure propper writing environment. Next thing of course is to invite oneself into the neighbor's house and sound proofing their walls.

Oh and yeah - Alan's father is a mountain, his mother is a washing machine and his neighbor has wings.

The book has this strange Kafkaesque quality - odd, off beat things simply happen with not much reason and logic to them and yet the plot is clear and consistent. He uses similar strange literal symbolism. You can never be sure if Doctorow is trying to hint at something deaper in that odd passage, or is he just playing with words.

Strange book...