A daily diary started by the narrator as a sort of orientation experiment, Notes follows a single year in the life of obscure composer, photographer, and essayist David Bacon. It offers a compact and comic look at both his world and the world around him. Here in elliptic notes is a snapshot of Bacon’s wife, Emily; his perpetually fearful neighbor, Mrs. Hampton; and his continuing struggle with a recalcitrant composition tentatively titled The Coward’s Quartet. Here in black and white is the documentary evidence with which one might—if so inclined—confront a conveniently unreliable memory.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Every so often, as a blogger, you come across a new kind of book that defies genre and is really a unique piece of work. Despite being extremely short in length, Notes is that book.
Written in short diary form, we follow the life of the narrator, David, and we truly are looking at his life from his perspective. We meet his neighbors and his friends. We live alongside him, inside him. It's a very interesting take on writing, derived from books like Dracula but modernized so much, it looks completely innovative.
On the surface, this book looked a bit dull, but upon reading it I found that I was very much entertained. It's a form of voyeurism, I suppose, in escaping your own life to live vicariously through the narrator's.
Definitely a book I recommend!
4/5--unique!
Purchase Notes via Amazon!
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