The Visible World

For the past week, I have been slowly slogging through The Visible World (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)by Mark Slouka, a novel about a boy of Czech immigrant parents that probably mirrors the author's life at least to a certain extent. The prose is stunning, and the story is delivered in short tidbits, slowly unraveling (or piecing together) the protagonists dream-like childhood that was informed by the wartime atrocities his parents escaped. The book is about the aftermath of war and love (in the time of war).

For some reason, I have not yet finished the novel. It is not so enthralling that I can't set it down, but I still keep on reading, however slowly I am getting through the text. At only 242 pages, I should have finished the book by the middle of last week. But, as I have been picking through the pages slowly during my lunchtimes I have not. The book reads like a dream or a not-quite-clear history re-told by someone once removed from the actual story. This is why I keep on reading. The story's dream-like character propels me on.