A True Mobius Strip

37.  Mr Peanut

I am not going to review this book because it is very hard to explain.  But I loved reading it, I loved the cover, I loved that it made me think and confront some truths about me, and I loved that it was over because it made me profoundly sad.  Although for the entire middle section, dedicated to retelling the Sheppard murder, all I could hear in my head was Tommy Lee Jones saying, "Dr. Richard Kimble!"

I would call this a Hipster book.  One that is cool to be seen reading, one loved by the NY Times, one that only certain people can "get", and so it has cache.  It is also a first novel that needs some editing.  But it is also really good.  Why is it good?  Because it is smart.  It meanders and weaves but it comes together.  It pulls in references to art and movies, technology and history.  It is truthful about how relationships work, and it is harsh, and some people will love that and some people will hate it.  It addresses the duplicity of people; who other people see versus how we think.  It confronts the fact that we are ever changing; we think something drastic and crazy one second and forget about it almost immediately. But people hate to be confronted by who they are, especially when picking up a murder mystery.  And this is probably the biggest fault I have with the book.  Who marked it as a mystery?  Because it isn't.  It is a character study.

The book talks a lot about Escher and Hitchcock, and those classes we take in college that stick with us forever and literally change who we are and how we think.  I have always loved Escher because I look at his stuff and think, "Where did it start?"  And I have to wonder this about Adam Ross and how he wrote this book, because at the end there is no possible way that the reader won't wonder where it all started.