When I saw the description of this book in the McSweeney’s store I knew I was going to buy it. It had all the right words - as if it were waiting on Dave Eggers’ site just for me, sending out secret messages: ”Nabokov… Agatha Christie… The Crying of Lot 49… The Third Policeman… Nordic lore and pulpy intrigue.” It called to me.
It’s a cool little faux detective romp regarding the attempts of Our Heroine to mourn the mysterious death of her friend Shirley MacGuffin and not get caught up in trying to solve the case. If you can’t tell by the names, be assured we’re in postmodern territory here. Imagine if Paul Auster’s debut trilogy was a comedy set in upstate New Uruk and Iceland instead of titular New York City. And just like that author’s trio of deconstructed detective stories, Dustin Long’s book is absolutely full of thematic jumping-off-points.
Which brings me to a point I want to make. To wit: One of the traps of these postmodern deconstructionist send-ups is that they can easily turn into something less like a story with characters and more like a doctoral dissertation with grand themes. Even the above-referenced Auster trilogy is sometimes guilty of being too didactic at the expense of fully-realized characters. (To be fair, I’m not sure character is always at the top of Auster’s to-do list. I’m sure he accomplished everything he set out to accomplish with The New York Trilogy.) I always use Nabokov’s Pale Fire as the shining example of a postmodern deconstruction puzzle-book that also has realistic characters. (And here I’m using the term “realistic” in a purely literary sense. Obviously there are arguments as to who or what is “real’ in the confines of Pale Fire qua story.) With Icelander Dustin Long has also managed that feat. Our Heroine, despite her cookie-cutter name, is anything but a mere model of the typical detective as created by the likes of Agatha Christie or Raymond Chandler or their ilk. With her anti-quest to avoid becoming involved in the case of her murdered friend and her disheveled mental state as a result of her recent divorce we have a fully fleshed-out character and not just some stand-in for the role of “Detective.”
It’s things like the intense characterization of Our Heroine and Blaise Duplain along with the intense pace of the narrative that set it apart from its postmodern brethren. I could go on and on about this book. And one day I hope to do just that. I have barely scratched the surface of this incredible debut novel; it deserves a very close reading. But for now let me just give it my highest possible recommendation and leave it at that. Even if you don’t usually read weird experimental stuff, read this.
