>>8001214
Fine, I'll read it, god damn. Been wanting to ever since that anon posted that prose passage from it. Is the prose that great throughout the book?

>>8001214
What is it about

>>8001253
The passage in question being:
>Sitting before my little fire, I know, when the wind blows outside, moaning in the fieldstone chimney I caused to be built for ornament, shrieking in the gutters and the ironwork and the eaves and trim and trellises of the house, that this planet of America, turning round upon itself, stands only at the outside, only at the periphery, only at the edges, of an infinite galaxy, dizzily circling. And that the stars that seem to ride our winds cause them.

>Sometimes I think to see huge faces bending between those stars to look through my two windows, faces golden and tenuous, touched with pity and wonder; and then I rise from my chair and limp to the flimsy door, and there is nothing; and then I take up the cruiser ax (Buntings Best, 2 lb. head, Hickory Handle) that stands beside the door and go out, and the wind sings and the trees lash themselves like flagellants and the stars show themselves between bars of racing cloud, but the sky between them is empty and blank.

>>8001253
Not all the time, it changes gears a lot, you'll see. It's a strange narrative, which is the beauty of the book.

I've loved BotNS and Fifth Head of Cerberus for years but I'm so pissed I waited til now to finish this book. Every time I read something by him it sort of throttles me to think in ways I didn't know I could. No other author resonates with me as much as Wolfe, I think he is my favorite.

>>8001261
an older man recalling his life in the haunted midwest

>>8001261

This >>8001270 is merely the surface level plot. It's really about guilt, sin, redemption, and memory.

I cannot stress enough how much of a miracle this book is. I'm honestly in shock every time I re-read it (3 times, going on a 4th once I finish TWK). Borski's interpretation of this book is actually quite interesting, if a little far-reaching (like all of Borski's interpretations are). I prefer the purgatory theory, as it seems to match up better with the story of the Chinese Pillow and the final lines of the book. The amazing thing about this novel, for me, is that Wolfe has essentially captured how all humans lie to themselves. It forces its readers to re-examine our own lives and pasts and confront the "skeletons in our closet". The whole way he handled the Lois Arbuthnot character was brilliant. The way his memory almost forces himself to forget about her, but his conscience finds a way to summon her from the dead reaches of his mind is fantastic. I honestly haven't come across such deep characterization since Faulkner, Joyce, and Dostoyevsky.

>>8002697
OP here, as I said >>8001265 I'm still sort of dazed by it and will be for weeks to come. I agree with what you said and that's my favorite interpretation of it and was Wolfe's intention anyway. The entire part with Lois chills me. I really didn't really quite realize what kind of man Alden was until I was done with it because as usual Wolfe doesn't spoon feed us anything, yet leaves subtle hints here and there.

I don't know of any other writer that makes you think in such a way and actually in the mind of the narrator. He fools me every fucking time.

>>8001214
I'll have to read it after Short Sun. It seems to be the consensus that this one is the best he wrote.

>>8001214
What should I read by him first?

>>8003069
Get Best of Gene Wolfe short stories. It also contains a Fifth Head of Cerberus novella.

Alright, lads, gonna start Book of the New Sun soon and try Latro in the Mist after that.

>>8003107
thanks

>>8003107
It also contains the The Death of Dr Island, my favorite short story of all time.