Some lovely early reviews of BATHING THE LION posted by readers at Amazon I particularly liked this one which was just sent to me (thanks KK) Bathing the Lion very nearly succeeds in defying description, especially for a literal, linear soul like me. I will not spoil the story for you by parsing it; instead, Ill describe how unusual an experience reading this book can be. Its characters and story arc resist characterization and pigeonholing. Rather, reading this book is a matter of immersion, a sense that you are passing through an intangible membrane from the here and today of your life to a place that is somewhat reassuringly recognizable -- except that it isnt, really. Theres the subtle sense of otherness that you get sometimes when youre on autopilot in a different city. Comfortable and recognizable ... except for the periodic, slightly unsettling jerks that remind you that this place is not home, it is other, and while you can pass the time there, it isnt your real existence. And see? The earlier part of this paragraph is just one example of the authors skill at creating subtle moments of disequilibrium. For me, this resulted in an insistent need to seek patterns and construct comprehension. Your elemental response may well be different, but I suspect one will exist, nonetheless. As I was reading, I kept thinking about a fascinating component of an interactive museum exhibit on the human brain I took in several weeks ago. This portion of the exhibit involved sitting next to a companion on a squashy sofa, donning headphones and giving yourself over to a series of video clips on a monitor. Afterward, a docent asked each of us to describe what wed seen and what the message was. After hearing both descriptions, which were wildly divergent, he volunteered that there are no wrong answers, just different ones, and that thus far no two answers hed heard had been alike. I suspect that this singularity of interpretation may well prove to be the case with this wonderful, perplexing, evocative, beautifully written book.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 04:55:00 +0000
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