I read the first section of this book, yet completely trapped in this mystery.
As the story begins, I was simply placed in a mist, with mysteries covering every aspect of the story, dragged into such deep mystery, unheard of. Starting from the way Robert Cormier makes the chapters as the tape number, the book overflows with mysteries, creating countless questions in my head. The story begins with perplexity as the narrator is telling his story of going to Rutterburg, Vermont to visit his father on his old bicycle, not revealing any of his identity, but giving small clues to introduce him. He strangely does not even mention his name in the exposition of the story, yet he mentions this girl called Amy whom he apparently loved before running away to Rutterburg. He also tells of some of his internal characteristics, including his fear of dogs and of large open spaces. Robert Cormier truly engages you with this main character, telling just enough about the main character, to create an irresistible curiosity. Not too little to make the story confusing, not too much to make us without curiosity, but just enough to make us eagerly keep reading.
Robert Cormier continues to stun me with his distinct, yet intriguing way of pulling me into this mystery. The first part of Tape OZK001 is in a first person narrative, but the narratives constantly change from one to other, having three different narratives, each telling of three different events and settings. Without any warning, the narrative and setting suddenly changes from the road trip to a conversation between this man, Brint, who is supposedly a psychiatrist and the main character, whose name was Adam. Brint tries to get Adam to remember of his memories, allowing Adam to fall into memories from long ago. The narrative and setting changes once again, the memories narrated in third person. He is taken into the night as he lay in bed in unknown agony that he realized something was going wrong, having listened to his parents whispering of worry and trouble, than harmoniously having their conversation of love. Then, the narrative and setting changes back to the conversation between Brint and Adam. Brint continues to ask of Adam’s memories and what he remembers from it. However, Adam barely remembers anything, faintly able to remember the bus trip with his parents, travelling somewhere else to run away from something. With only his mother’s perfume and his father’s smell from smoking, clear and strong in his memory. Confused, unable to clearly remember, Adam tells Brint that he does not really remember. Surprisingly, the narrative changes again to a third person, telling of what Adam is truly feeling inside. He feels as if Brint is rather friendly, yet does not even want to give Brint any clues of what had happened. The narrative then changes back to the conversation between Brint and Adam. Despite Adam’s hope that Brint will not know of his memories, Brint seems to have somehow read Adam’s mind, asking about the clues that Adam had been secretly thinking about. Adam is shocked, trying to figure out how he had read his mind, refusing to answer the question by going back to the resting place he was before. Then the narrative again changes to the bike trip.
It is like Robert Cormier places us in a dark night.
We can barely see what is going on, but only the slightest idea. However, such as the moon and stars provide some light during the night, Robert Cormier provides enough light to allow us to kind of get an idea of who the character is and what the story is. Similar to the way street lamps, the moon, and the small stars all come from different directions showing some different parts of a figure, leaving the rest of the parts not shown as mystery, Robert Cormier tells the mystery in three different narratives and settings, all three not showing any connections yet, leaving it for us to really think and try to interpret what is going on. He does not simply reveal all that is going on and how the three different narratives and settings come together an make sense, such as placing the mystery on a bright sunny day rather than a dark night, but as we read more and more, he just makes the street lamps, the moon, or the stars shine a bit brighter, allowing us to understand more about the characters, but not about how the three different narratives connect. If he had told the story from one narrative and with a smooth story, it would have been less confusing, but without the kind of suspension that Robert Cormier has made. Robert Cormier makes us confused with the sudden transitions of the narratives and settings, but the confusion attracts us to read more, than put the book down and stating how it makes no sense at all.
The first part of the story, Tape OZK001, brought me into such confusion, yet it trapped me into this deep mystery starting from the bike trip. As the story started from a first person narrative of the bike trip to Rutterburg, it was easier to imagine what was happening in my head as I read the story. Since Robert Cormier also didn’t use much direct characterization, it made me truly think of who the character was and what he was like through the indirect characterization throughout the story. This thinking rather brought me deeper and deeper into this abysmal hole of mystery rather than make me have a headache and have a hard time concentrating on the book. I was very much engaged in the first part of the story, the bike trip where the main character is travelling all alone in a big wide open road, since I also have been in somewhat a similar situation. I wasn’t going somewhere to see my father, but lost in this forest. I realized that I should rather go to the wide open road to get back to where my father was, but the road was rather frightening than the forests. It was empty and something about such openness scared me, having lively imprint on my memory. Although the countless transitions between the narratives and the settings were confusing, this confusion rather brought me more into the mystery, making unable to pull myself out.
As the story begins, I was simply placed in a mist, with mysteries covering every aspect of the story, dragged into such deep mystery, unheard of. Starting from the way Robert Cormier makes the chapters as the tape number, the book overflows with mysteries, creating countless questions in my head. The story begins with perplexity as the narrator is telling his story of going to Rutterburg, Vermont to visit his father on his old bicycle, not revealing any of his identity, but giving small clues to introduce him. He strangely does not even mention his name in the exposition of the story, yet he mentions this girl called Amy whom he apparently loved before running away to Rutterburg. He also tells of some of his internal characteristics, including his fear of dogs and of large open spaces. Robert Cormier truly engages you with this main character, telling just enough about the main character, to create an irresistible curiosity. Not too little to make the story confusing, not too much to make us without curiosity, but just enough to make us eagerly keep reading.
Robert Cormier continues to stun me with his distinct, yet intriguing way of pulling me into this mystery. The first part of Tape OZK001 is in a first person narrative, but the narratives constantly change from one to other, having three different narratives, each telling of three different events and settings. Without any warning, the narrative and setting suddenly changes from the road trip to a conversation between this man, Brint, who is supposedly a psychiatrist and the main character, whose name was Adam. Brint tries to get Adam to remember of his memories, allowing Adam to fall into memories from long ago. The narrative and setting changes once again, the memories narrated in third person. He is taken into the night as he lay in bed in unknown agony that he realized something was going wrong, having listened to his parents whispering of worry and trouble, than harmoniously having their conversation of love. Then, the narrative and setting changes back to the conversation between Brint and Adam. Brint continues to ask of Adam’s memories and what he remembers from it. However, Adam barely remembers anything, faintly able to remember the bus trip with his parents, travelling somewhere else to run away from something. With only his mother’s perfume and his father’s smell from smoking, clear and strong in his memory. Confused, unable to clearly remember, Adam tells Brint that he does not really remember. Surprisingly, the narrative changes again to a third person, telling of what Adam is truly feeling inside. He feels as if Brint is rather friendly, yet does not even want to give Brint any clues of what had happened. The narrative then changes back to the conversation between Brint and Adam. Despite Adam’s hope that Brint will not know of his memories, Brint seems to have somehow read Adam’s mind, asking about the clues that Adam had been secretly thinking about. Adam is shocked, trying to figure out how he had read his mind, refusing to answer the question by going back to the resting place he was before. Then the narrative again changes to the bike trip.
It is like Robert Cormier places us in a dark night.
We can barely see what is going on, but only the slightest idea. However, such as the moon and stars provide some light during the night, Robert Cormier provides enough light to allow us to kind of get an idea of who the character is and what the story is. Similar to the way street lamps, the moon, and the small stars all come from different directions showing some different parts of a figure, leaving the rest of the parts not shown as mystery, Robert Cormier tells the mystery in three different narratives and settings, all three not showing any connections yet, leaving it for us to really think and try to interpret what is going on. He does not simply reveal all that is going on and how the three different narratives and settings come together an make sense, such as placing the mystery on a bright sunny day rather than a dark night, but as we read more and more, he just makes the street lamps, the moon, or the stars shine a bit brighter, allowing us to understand more about the characters, but not about how the three different narratives connect. If he had told the story from one narrative and with a smooth story, it would have been less confusing, but without the kind of suspension that Robert Cormier has made. Robert Cormier makes us confused with the sudden transitions of the narratives and settings, but the confusion attracts us to read more, than put the book down and stating how it makes no sense at all.The first part of the story, Tape OZK001, brought me into such confusion, yet it trapped me into this deep mystery starting from the bike trip. As the story started from a first person narrative of the bike trip to Rutterburg, it was easier to imagine what was happening in my head as I read the story. Since Robert Cormier also didn’t use much direct characterization, it made me truly think of who the character was and what he was like through the indirect characterization throughout the story. This thinking rather brought me deeper and deeper into this abysmal hole of mystery rather than make me have a headache and have a hard time concentrating on the book. I was very much engaged in the first part of the story, the bike trip where the main character is travelling all alone in a big wide open road, since I also have been in somewhat a similar situation. I wasn’t going somewhere to see my father, but lost in this forest. I realized that I should rather go to the wide open road to get back to where my father was, but the road was rather frightening than the forests. It was empty and something about such openness scared me, having lively imprint on my memory. Although the countless transitions between the narratives and the settings were confusing, this confusion rather brought me more into the mystery, making unable to pull myself out.
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