“I go back and forth with the "are they the same" question, too. Some 'facts' overlap, but then others contradict them, so it's not "chartable" like that, but then, some of these 'facts' could be lost in the retelling? A lot of the characters, like the book itself, seem like such a performance, and what's real is not the characters being the same, or them being separate individuals, but the idea behind them, their stories. If he's trying to construct it like an overlapping story, it really fails -- it's too much like a puzzle, which is just boring, frankly, and doesn't gel with what he's written.”
“it was okay. too woody allen-ish. unfortunate events, horseradish, and latke are better”
“Annoying, playful, teasing, compelling ... yes, this book is all of these things. Essentially a short story collection, but one that is sort of tied together but sort of isn't. Are the characters that reappear the same people or just ones that share the same names? Does it matter? I've read it twice (second time to 'figure it out') and am still undecided as to whether it is utter rubbish or a work of genius. ”
