WIJFR: S.

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One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

I  just finished reading “S.” created by J. J. Abrams  and written by Doug Dorst. I didn’t know a lot about it other than I had heard someone mention it on a podcast and it sounded intriguing. I received it as a Christmas present, started it in mid-January, and then finished it this past weekend during a trip to the west coast to see my sister.

S.” is a book inside a book, and it’s a really cool concept. I pretty much do all my reading on my iPhone but this is an experience that would just not translate to an e-book.

Once you take the hardcover book out of the outer “S.” slipcover, it becomes “Ship of Theseus” by V.M. Straka, a book taken from a college library. It even has the white Dewey Decimal System sticker on the spine and a series of “return by” stamps in the back cover. Skimming through the book, you’ll find the pages covered with colored handwriting, and inserts like handwritten notes, postcards, and newspaper clippings. As you read, there’s the text of the “Ship of Theseus” novel, and then the conversation of Jen and Eric, the two college students reading and researching the book, writing in the margins. There are different colors of ink representing different times or passes through the book (like pencil for Eric’s initial notes, then blue/black for Jen and Eric’s initial conversation, yellow/green for later, red/purple for even later, etc.) At first it can be really confusing, but once you get into it (and it doesn’t take long to be pulled in!) you’ll find it’s not that hard to keep the different periods of time straight as you figure out the story of what’s going on.

Reading "S."

Reading “S.”

Before starting “S.” I did look for a few suggestions on “how” to read it. The best Amazon review I found suggested this. I just ended up reading it straight through, however, reading each page and all of the notes that went along with it, regardless of “when” they were written. Now I’m going to go back and read the margin notes again to see what else I might have missed earlier on.

If you want a teaser, check out this trailer, or this one. There’s also these articles (on the Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian) from when the book was released last year and don’t give too much away.

My personal suggestion would be to not read too much about it on the internet before you start, though. Just read it and then check out all the stuff out there on the ‘net. Like “Lost” you don’t need to follow any of the side content to enjoy the book. The blog I am going through now is S.Files22, which has a lot of content including pictures of all the “feelies,” information on the various chapter codes, etc.

In typical  J. J. Abrams fashion (although more credit is obviously due to Dorst since he actually wrote it) there are a lot of questions, some answers, more questions, more questions, a few more answers, and unanswered questions. If you liked “Lost” (and old Infocom games, and mysteries) then you’ll probably love “S.”

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