The Anomaly

Well written, incredibly clever and completely mind bending.

A heady mix of The Matrix, Mathematics, Sophies World, Airport 80, Simulation Hypothesis, Astrophysics, Stephen King's Under The Dome, Philosophy, Barry Manilow's Bermuda Triangle (to which I know all the words!!!), Theology and the TV show Fringe.

THE ANOMALY BY HERVÈ LE TELLIER

It is important to note that this book takes many liberties with structure and prose style; there is no one unified protagonist, nor is there all that much substance plot-wise I fear. This book is predominantly characterized by its focus on philosophy and discussion as well as critique of many aspects of modern life and culture, especially religion. The most wondrous and fictional aprt of this book, except the duplicated plane and all its passengers, is the fact that a child predator in the army is rightfully sentenced.

While I do understand the point of the book and what it is going for, it was a read more frustrating than enjoyable. The first 150-200 pages were a nightmare and I only pushed onwards because I owed it to the kind and wonderful librarian who has not read the book, but recommended it to me because she heard good things about it and wanted me to enjoy it. Hopefully she will not be in the library when I return my borrowed copy because I have nary a compliment for this novel.

The writing style starts out a fun and new experience, but this book seems to be in love with itself and its words; after some time (roughly 50 pages), the prose lost its charm and started to feel annoying. Especially when the meta-commentary started getting peppered in. I was tempted to throw the book at a wall when it began referencing itself and the reader. Likewise, there were many tidbits here that felt rather pointless to me; as I got farther into the book, the less the scene with all the religious leaders felt relevant to the goings-on. It started to feel shoe-horned in just to ridicule religion and make some points about the human soul, which I didn't find particularly interesting or inspiring, in part because I heard all those talking points already in real-life debates that were a lot more captivating. The issue for me, with this novel, is that it discussed topics I have already explored in more depth and with more nuance through my online experience, watching other people's debates and asking questions on forums, as well as researching philosophy. As such, there was nothing novel, nothing to interest me. I didn't care for the characters, I didn't care for the topics discussed (mostly because they were so repetitive for me), and the story was less a plot and more a backdrop for philosophical meanderings.

That being said, I can see why people would like this book. I don't see why it would be life-changing, but that is my difficulty with empathy speaking. Philosophy does affect people greatly, and there is much within this book that invites the readers to consider philosophy-changing theories and hypotheses. However, for those who are well-versed in philosophy, or if they find themselves rather apathetic to the discussion of “are we real, are we not?”, this book has little to offer.

Still, Le Tellier did handle quite a lot of sensitive topics with good-hearted humor and with the seriousness they deserve. A gay Black man struggling with living and loving his homophobic culture, a young girl sexually abused by her father. Both issues are treated respectfully and without any gratuity, which I appreciate. However, while some of the characters are well-handled, I don't think they're interesting or well-executed, or memorable. By the time the plot really took off, I just wanted to finish this shit, and couldn't care less about the people I was reading about.

My overall impression is that the book is full of itself, it is not as novel as it seems to think itself to be, and I was bored until we hit the last third. This just was not the book for me, and I was not the book for the reader; this is, I think, mostly for the people who are worried, and who fear what the world means and what fate is, and I just am not that person.

Really enjoyed the first two sections of the book, but the third really doesn't land the plane. Fast read with interesting compelling characters, but it didn't feel like there was anything that tied them together besides the anomaly that happens to them.

I kind of wish that the final section really focused on just a couple of the most interesting characters and followed them through for longer periods of time to show their reactions of the result of the anomaly. It was a little bit too much of a wave of the hand that they all accepted what happened so easily....

Impressive display of techno-thriller/sci-fi wizardry with a bit of heart to boot. Makes me wonder as an American reader, what other books I've missed from this author. Obviously talented with a great imagination, hopefully there are more English translated works to come.

FFO: Michael Crichton, Cixin Liu

• 1/10 to Kojima's literary taste having read 200 books per year and then praising this one

Al principio de este libro se prensentan a muchos personaes.
Aunque no pasa nada, simplemente se nos presenta cada uno, es la parte que mas me gusta, se tiene que tener mucha habilidad para describir tantos personajes de forma unica.

Despues esta el evento del libro, que bueno no esta mal.
Pero el final es como la gente reacciona a esto y me esperaba mas. Tarde 6 dias en leer el primer 80% y 3 semanas el ultimo 20% porque me estaba arrastrando intentando acabarlo.

Denne boka har fått masse oppmerksomhet, vunnet Goncourt-prisen og fått sendetid på Dagsrevyen. Da må det være noe med den!

Et fly lander i mars 2021 i New York etter å ha flydd gjennom tidenes haglstorm. Tre måneder senere dukker det opp igjen, samme flight-nummer, samme personer, samme skader etter stormen, de sammen menneskene med de samme “attributtene” og de samme minnene.
Ikke kloner, det er samme personer, bare en gang til.

Sånne ting trigger meg, det umulige som i en verden med Ormehull, multiuniverser, kvantesprang osv. virker det ikke så umulig likevel. Men hva slags konsekvenser ville noe sånt hatt hvis det faktisk skjedde, og hva kunne årsaken vært. Jo, sprø tanke. Men hva vil skje den dagen noen klarer å lage kopier av oss, lagrer våre minner og overfører identiteten til nye, identiske kropper? Det er jo sånne tanker forskningen leker med.

Det mest fascinerende med denne boken, er nettopp denne ideen. Gjennomføringen er ikke så verst, noen ganger føler jeg meg hensatt til Station 11 av Emily St. John Mandel, andre ganger til en thriller en hoppende versjon av en Dan Brown-roman, noen ganger igjen avansert sakprosa fra Carlo Rovelli. Jeg blir engasjert, jeg blir utfordret, og det at jeg leser boken på tre dager sier sitt. Det skjer nesten aldri lenger.

MEN: Det blir veldig mange mennesker å forholde seg til, uten at det fins en eneste hovedperson. Det blir som å lese en serie noveller satt i samme landskap - litt Alice Munro. Det er vanskelig å holde styr på de. Historien har ingen rød tråd annet enn å fortelle hva som skjedde før og nå, og dialogen kan til tider smake av en dårlig Dan Brown.

SAMTIDIG: Når Le Tellier holder seg unna dialogene er det riktig så bra, passe variert og godt språk, gode skildringer og spennende små komplikasjoner som nødvendigvis må oppstå når jeg møter meg for første gang og jeg gjør krav på mitt. Hvem har da retten? Og aller best: For første gang jeg kan huske merker jeg ikke at boken er oversatt fra fransk til engelsk. Som regel har det ordrike engelske språket en tendens til å sluke oversettelser slik at de mister det preget forfatteren gir teksten. Men her skjer det ikke. Alt sammen autentisk og glimrende oversatt av Adriana Hunter.

3.5 stars

This was an interesting, enjoyable story. More of a SciFi read than a thriller, which wasn't what I expected.
I enjoyed it, even though there was a lot that wasn't explained.

Trust me: if you have read enough about this book to be pretty sure you want to read this book, you probably should just go ahead and start reading it, without reading any more reviews or commentary.

I thought the concept of this book was really cool - the characters are duplicated with a four month gap and have an opportunity to make different choices - but the execution didn't work for me. The setup is way too long and the book is much more about the simulation theory than any of the characters. I never felt really connected to anyone and nothing interesting happened. Also the book within a book of The Anomaly sounded terrible.

It reads as a bingeable show - you don't want to stop at the end of each episode and you let it play on. The themes and motifs feel familiar and yet at the same time explored in an all new narrative.