I finished The Architect of Ruin last night. I'm really not sure what to think of it. I don't think I understood it that well. That would require a reread, but I'm not up for that at this point. The other book I'd read by Rosendorfer (Letters Back from Ancient China) was a much easier read.

The book starts out on a train with an unusual chance encounter, but is the rest of it a flashback? a dream? Within that dream how did he get back to the lake? How many of the people were real? Am I supposed to try to understand it, or should I just accept all of the short stories caught up within the "main" story as separate stories? I just did a websearch on "Architect of Ruins" and only found 29 hits, most of which were links to amazon (either directly or indirectly). Perhaps there's some discussion somewhere about it in German, but I don't think I've got quite enough interest in what other people thought to track it down and have it translated. Ah well. I'll chalk that one up to leaving me confused.

I started Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs. It should be a much faster, easier, and more enjoyable read.
posted by Kristin Buxton at 9:34 AM