Title: Only Revolutions: A Novel
Author: Mark Z. Danielewski
LC Rating:

Ok, fair warning first: Having previously thought that Danielewski’s first novel House of Leaves was the strangest form of book I’d ever held in my hand, I have since been shown the error of my ways. Hands down, Only Revolutions takes the cake. From concept to execution, this is a very interesting artifact.

Before even delving into content, let’s take a look at the physical artifact itself. From the second after my eyes delighted in the sight of a new novel by Danielewski on the library shelf and my hands quickly snatched it up, I noticed it was heavier than it ought to be. If you heft as many books as I do, it’s the sort of thing that immediately jumps into your awareness, and since it was a library book I have been able to resist the urge to tear it apart at the seams to see if the cover is lead-lined or some other obscure thing. I don’t know why it’s heavier that a normal novel, I just know that it is. Then you open the book, and the weight gets pushed to the back burner. The first page presents you with another set of conundrums; running along the left margin is a small column of text topped with a date in pink letters, the text itself seems to be culled from the news of that particular date, and does not readily yield up its secrets. Then, at the bottom of the page, the print is upside down.

Ok, so confused now, you turn the book around and start from the other side, same thing . . . well, sort of. With Only Revolutions Danielewski has decided to tell us a love story, told twice, one report from each of the main characters, Hailey and Sam. Open it from the side with the green eye (with flecks of gold) on the cover, and you’ll read Sam’s take on the events, open from the side with the gold eye (with flecks of green) on the cover, and you get Hailey’s side. Thankfully the tome comes with two ribbon book-marks; one green, one gold, so that you don’t completely loose your place (or perhaps your mind) as you continue to rotate the book, alternating between the perspectives.

This is of course to say nothing of the fact that in Hailey’s account, all the ‘o’s are gold, in Sam’s, they are green, or a few dozen other odd symmetries that I noticed as I worked my way through Only Revolutions. As you work your way into the center from both ends, the page space given to each character’s side of the tale begins to shrink, until you reach dead center, where everything is perfectly balanced and the two sides of the tale are as close to perfectly synchronized as they will ever get.

My predictions do not see this book gaining any real sort of popularity. Stylistic irregularities aside, the text reads like Danielewski has been immersing himself in the work of Shakespeare and more importantly, Finnegans Wake. There are even a couple of crafty nods to the Wake for the cognoscenti to giggle at. This reads like an epic poem, or perhaps two of them.

All that said, I found Only Revolutions a very interesting read, Danielewski uses the basic concept he’s set up with his rotating book to the very best advantage, weaving a surprisingly moving story of ’star-crossed lovers’ and the importance of love in this world.

I really don’t want to give too much away (is this code for ‘i don’t understand half of what i just read’? [maybe, shut up!]) but, suffice it to say that ultimately I came to see Only Revolutions as a beautiful puzzle, a more than occasionally coherent enigma that you can push your mind against and enjoy the process of exploring something very unique and quite elegant. Give it a spin.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 9:48 pm and is filed under indiscriminate, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.