What a strange, difficult, engrossing, wonderful book this is! Using stream of consciousness, music and graphic design, Barker brings us to a bizarre world where emotions are dulled to spare from pain. Mira A., using music, will access her painful past by edging out of this pleasant prison, the musical notes creating vibrations that interfere with the artificial frequencies of the system she is in. It is an allegory for the ways in which we numb ourselves to avoid pain, but can also be extended to the way we treat mental illness in general.
Ultimately this book generates more questions than answers, but isn't that its very premise? for the reader to question the words she uses, the lies she may manufacture to avoid an uncomfortable truth? After all, freedom resides in uncertainty and how many of us are willing to walk in ambiguity?
An incredibly original and artistic novel with deep philosophical questions. ( )

Reason Read: Reading 1001 January 2023 BOTM
This book was a recent add to the 1001 list. It is written by Nicola Barker, British author and is a dystopian book. This is a book that is probably set in the near future though no information is provided. It seems that people have become mechanized and that they are (the Young) are constantly monitored to keep everyone in harmony. Meaning constant surveillance. It really felt current because of its issues of not being able to deviate from the norm without societal repercussions. It also felt like this false utopia was beset by its own lying serpent. The novel was not only one of story by words but also by use of color, drawings, changes in fonts that created atmosphere for the story. Very creative. What was lacking is anything that made you feel connected to the characters. The main character and the secondary characters were so caught up in this System that they were unreachable. There was a lot of tension, darkness, not much light and little if no humor. It does deserve it's place on the 1001 as it is certainly creative. The use of music and all that is included in music was also interesting though I know little to nothing about music. ( )

I chose to read this book because it was added to the 1001 Books To Read Before you Die list this year and I happen to share a last name with the author. I'm not sure what I feel about it. It is either brilliant or it is crazy. I'm leaning towards brilliant but it's not the type of writing that I particularly enjoy. So I have given it a rather mediocre rating. Still it gave me a lot to think about and I think I'm glad/h(a)ppy I read it.

Mira A lives in a distant time when human beings are mostly young and unblemished and content. She is a musician as much as anybody is anything. She starts to have some unsettling dreams about a guitar player and a young girl. Kite,a Full Neuter, comes to see her to try to correct her feelings which have become a little chaotic. After he visits Mira A tries some of his suggestions, like joining a group of musicians that play the kora, but nothing seems to help her. She continues to construct a narrative which separates her from society and could ultimately harm everyone in that society. The guitarist she dreamed about is Agustin Barrios, a native from Paraguay who was a virtuouso on the guitar. From thinking about him she slips into reading about Paraguay and the Guaranis, the natives of the Paraguay region. Mira A becomes more and more distanced from her life and can no longer stay in balance. And yet she has discovered a tuning at 432 Hz instead of the commonly accepted 440 Hz that makes her feel good. Perhaps even HAPPY. ( )

Nicola Barker novels are not for the faint-of-heart. They are smart, clever, often funny, and really mess with the art of fiction in ways that I find wonderfully fun and creative. I’m going to tell you up front that I can’t possibly do this book any justice in this review. That said, I’m going to try:

Mira A, our narrator, lives in a utopian future where the Young have been saved (they are beyond God). They are innocent, living in the moment, free from the “manacles of the past.” All are at peace and “in balance.”. Mira A also seems to be integrated with “The Graph” and “The Sensor”, has ocular devices, and can be, or is chemically regulated. As Mira A begins to tell her story, she begins to glitch, or in more human terms, rebel.

I remember when I reviewed Barker’s Impact Dublin Award-winning book, Wide Open, I said something to the effect that ‘everything in the book is made to serve the story’ and in this book, the narrative is the story, the printed words of her narrative turn color, make patterns, repeat…etc. Bits of Paraguayan history, and that of one guitarist in particular, keeps inserting itself into the narrative. Says Mira:

Because Now all creatures are equal. That is our Philosophy. No one may be raised above. So The Sensor—because we want it to, because we need it to, because we ask it to—helpfully breaks these once-lauded individuals down into their component parts. It deconstructs them. They are accorded mere numbers. They are not credited with names, because names generate a kind of tiny, psychological implosion, a connection, a dangerous synergy that bounces between the letters and the information and the image and the meaning. This guitarist was Paraguayan and his number is 91.51.9.81.81.1.2.
(pg 8/9. note: the underlined words are blue in the book).

One can’t help but laugh through this book, it’s a utopian satire after all, and Mira is a great character, but again, EVERYTHING in the book is made to serve the story. I really enjoyed it. ( )