S. Is Here. And It’s Completely Unexpected.

~post by Julie

Yesterday we received our first shipment of S., the new novel from J. J. Abrams and Austinite Doug Dorst. Today I actually opened up a copy. Holy pajamas. This is quite a book.

So okay, let’s start with looks, because the experience of reading this book has almost everything to do with its physical representation. The book comes in a black slipcase with its actual title on the outside – S. But then check out the spine:

We are about to get so meta on your reading minds. So Ship of Theseus is a novel by V. M. Straka, supposedly his nineteenth book which (according to publisher copy) channels “the psychic horror of Lovecraft and the political acumen of Camus and Kafka (to explore) the tenuous nature of identity and the blind pull of love”. Hmm. Okay. I open up Ship of Theseus and this is what I see:

Postcards, letters, napkins, and all kinds of notes in the margin. I then stand there for fifteen minutes out of a seriously busy day and do nothing but read. The handwritten notes are between two people who have passed the book back and forth. My eyes move back and forth from the “text” to their notes. I stop to read the first letter (a scathing review by Straka of a film adaptation of one of his novels) and work out images of the characters behind the handwriting. I presume the loopy cursive is female – and then question why I made that presumption. In other words – this is a book that has stopped me in my tracks and made me think.

I’m in. Sign me up. I want to read the rest of this book.

The back and forth across the page reminded me of a certain daunting reading experience I had about ten years ago when I cracked open Infinite Jest for the first time. Yes, please, give me a book that makes me work. Give me a book that makes me think not just about the story, but about how I’m reading and interpreting the story. Yes, please, give me S.

For the record – not only did this book make me drop everything I was doing and start reading, it made me then shove everything else on my To Do list down a notch just to tell you how impressed and excited I am. Now, of course, I’ve put the pressure on. The story (which promises intrigue and mystery) and experience (which at some point necessitates the use of a decoder wheel) better live up to its packaging. Knowing Dorst’s work, I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed. I’ll certainly let you know.

For more on the writing and creation of S., check out Doug Dorst’s conversation with Publisher’s Weekly, in which he explained his system: “I have a complex organizational system that involves the scribbling of notes on many different scraps of paper and then the stacking of these papers on all available surfaces. The rest I keep in my head. It’s absolutely foolproof.”

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Copies of S. are now available on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. Dorst is here to talk about the book on Tuesday, December 9th at 7pm.