Sketches of Alice
a coming of age romance / portrait of the muse by the artist as a young man
things people have said about the book:
I could rant about this book all day. It’s different, it’s realistic, and the way the drama unfolds is pure art. I felt every chapter, and will never forget this masterpiece.
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It reminded me of Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, I nominate this book as its successor. It’s a tragic ode to tragic love … profound without being saccharine … I read it compulsively, couldn’t put it down, it was magnetic.’
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Sketches of Alice is a vibe like nothing that I’ve ever experienced. … a page turner from start to finish … Where his last books were supernatural, religious, grandiose, and allegorical even, this one was messy, human, and intimate.
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This story will break your heart. … a love story for romantics, idealists, and realists alike, about two people born in the right place at the wrong time.
… a seamless stream of consciousness that is the trademark of the author. I was particularly impressed with the dialogue in this one. Sporadic in previous works, but heavy here. … despite the absence of quote marks or dialogue tags … [the conversations] never feel forced, contrived, or there for the sake of exposition. The entire narrative is natural, genuine – human.
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Isaac, a young university drop-out, chances upon his highschool History teacher, they chat, walk about an unnamed city, … drawing closer to each other across the bridge of two decades, both somewhat at odds with the world, with modernity, with what they wanted or expected from life … I was reminded of Before Sunrise, that same sense of two lives briefly intersecting, making a kind of improvised music for a few unrepeatable hours.
Jazz is part of this strange, lovely story, appropriately enough since it has a jazz-like sense of spontaneity… headlong, irresistible passion & obsession animates the prose and the protagonist.
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…beautiful little book. …a portrait of an artist’s awakening, told as a jazz lament about star-crossed lovers. The book is infused with jazz references, including particular tracks. Laeth has even compiled a playlist for this novel, which I found interesting to listen to as I read …
For those familiar with Laeth’s other work, this is at least superficially a departure. Here there are none of his earlier supernatural themes, and the prose itself is much less reflective, stripped down and direct.
…the novel is a double narrative. The real subject is not Alice, it’s [the protagonist’s] love for her and interpretation of her, and his fixation on rendering her again and again in memory and art.
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Alice is at once the beautiful older history teacher, the guardian of classic forms in both her tastes and her manners, and the embodiment of a world that is disappearing.
The descriptive aspect of the book in general is really good. The settings and minor characters were woven in in the right amount and not overbearing.
The ending caught me off guard … it can be interpreted in a variety of bittersweet ways …there’s really a sense to this book of it wanting to come out of the author.
The Rot
a magical realist novel about the apocalypse.
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things people have said about the book:
«The world is ending, I can see it, but that won’t stop me. The most uplifting message from one of the most curmudgeon aphorists»
«The Rot doesn’t attempt to recreate the wheel and it doesn’t harp on the usual hot points of apocolypticals. Instead it finds new angles of interest that make the unfolding of this tale feel novel… While the narrator isn’t entirely omniscient, I got the repeated and distinct impression that he is honest above all, and the whole tale felt like a chip off some eternal record.»
«immediately reminded me of Saramago… The magical realism in this book is, indeed, peak, and oftentimes even cinematic… a freedom in the prose which is refreshing…the narrative showed joy and wonderment at simple things like the dog. I liked the presence of animals in this book very much in general… [an] Abrahamic journey of looking for a land, of looking for a place away from the rot and the monsters»
«a must read for critical thinkers, fans of cosmic horror, apocalyptic fiction, and philosophical theology.»
«This book reads like a breeze… I found myself making connections as I read, from John Bunyan to Kafka, from Kierkegaard to David Graeber, ideas theological, mythological, and philosophical. It definitely makes the reader wander. Excellent read. Highly recommended.»
Phantasia
a magical realist novel about gods and devils and imagination.
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Things people have said about the book:
‘The premise is unusual: a viral anonymous post leads people to put their heads in bowls of water and try to manifest objects. First for a laugh, and then, somehow, for those who are gifted…it works. From this strange start, the narrator develops the consequences for the world with impressive logic. And yet this book is not a thought experiment. The narrator is telling you a deeper, cosmic story, a sort of modern Miltonian tale.’
‘For all the strangeness of Phantasia, at its heart it is a story of love (…), about good vs evil, and how those alliances are not always drawn in the ways you might imagine.’
‘Many themes recur in the novel: the theme of time, particularly the distinction between “private time” and “worldly” time; the theme of roads, of paths, and forks; the themes of place, of language, of love, and the magic of all of these.’
‘The love stories in this book were gripping, real, and effective. There is a great tenderness and witness to romantic love, not as sentimentality, but as a potentially eternal reality. This was a brilliant part of the story, and one I particularly enjoyed.’
‘In a way, the narrator is a character of the book. A rambling man, by initial appearances, yet a man who seems to ramble toward a purpose: to weave the spell of his story.’
‘Language is itself alive in this book, central to the unfolding story.’
‘The style and prose, expertly written as a stream of consciousness, reminds me a bit of Saramago in the way that it blends dialogue and narration without bothering with punctuation’.
‘The way the author writes dialogue is unusual (…), I can only say that it took a bit of getting used to, but it is a technique with a purpose, and it is a technique that works’.
‘[this book] is beautiful because it is hopeful, understanding but hopeful, and in a world saturated with hopelessness, something hopeful is much needed’.
‘I am still glowing from the finale. (…) I don’t believe you’ll ever find a book like this one.’
‘If you’re looking for something truly original and unique, give Phantasia a try.’
