No need for a
detailed introduction today. This is the continuation of my list of 20
Favourite Comics and Novels Read in 2015. You can read the first part here.
10. Peace by Gene Wolfe (not reviewed)
Novel
As I mentioned on Wednesday, one of my personal goals in
2015 was to read a few really challenging books. One of those was Inherent Vice. Another one was Peace. If you’ve ever read a book by Gene
Wolfe you won’t need convincing that his books are difficult to read and worth
the effort required to understand them. It’s never a problem to finish reading
a book by Wolfe because his prose is simply beautiful. It’s complex, but mostly
approachable. It challenges the reader without being off-putting. With Peace, one of his earliest novels, Wolfe clearly demonstrates that he is
a master of literature. I’m often confused by the lack of discussion
surrounding his impressive body of work online. Then I look at the number of
books I’ve written about here at SUR and I shut up. Reading Peace last year was an attempt to start
fixing that but like the other books on this list that I didn’t review, I read
it during a time where I was working on a big project and I wasn’t focused on
regular reviews.
In Peace, Wolfe
builds a very complex story with the use of one of his main storytelling tools,
the unreliable narrator. Also important to the story is the use of memories.
The plot of the book is pretty simple at first glance, but much of it is made
up of lies and the reader figuring out what really happened (or at least
questioning the veracity of what you’re being told). Doing this is the start to
really appreciating what this novel has to offer. The book begins with an old
man thinking about his past. Each section of the book jumps from one period of
his life to another. Along the way Wolfe gives us impressively detailed and
engrossing passages that would have been beautiful short stories if published separately.
On their own, on the surface level, these are great and somewhat anecdotal
pieces of fiction. When looked at together in the context of the novel’s real
plot (not an old man, exactly, nor really a memoir), it’s powerful stuff. Like
it sometime happens when I talk about really excellent books that have impacted
me on an emotional level, I feel inadequate talking about Peace. From what I can tell though, it’s a forgotten masterpiece
that modern audiences need to find and experience.
