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Thursday, October 31, 2019

A novel in short chapters that, perhaps, could be read in any sequence: Walking on the Ceiling

The 2019 debut novel by Turkish-born writer (writing in English) Aysegul Savas, Walking on the Ceiling, consists of 72 very short "chapters," each a glimpse into the life of the narrator (who seems to be much like the author, from what I can discern, about 1/4 through the novel - but that's typical of most debut, first-person narratives); the kick is that the segments seem to be in random order, each a piece of a puzzle whose lineaments become more clear as we proceed. I suspect one could read this novel in any sequence, and I wonder if an online version may give readers the option of doing so. IN any event, it's not a novel of high drama or mystery and the writing is clear but not self-consciously literary so the book despite its unusual structure is pretty accessible. Here's the plot as I can make it out up to this point: Narrator's childhood in Istanbul with her father, a literary sort, suffering from some kind of depression; mother, impatient w/ the father's melancholy, withdraws from family interaction; father dies, and mother feels new freedom but smothers teenage narrator with her love and control; narrator goes to "university" in England, where she lives w/ boyfriend, Luke, and dreams of becoming a writer; wants to leave for Paris but is waylaid by mother's pleas for her to come home, as mother is ill; mother dies, and narrator, against wishes of aunts, sells apartment; narrator moves to Paris and enrolls in writing program, but w/ no intention of attending classes; breaks w/ Luke - who accuses her for being under mother's influence; at a reading, meets well-known author, M. (Modiano, I thought at first, but no) who befriends her; M had written a novel set in part in Istanbul and is working on another w/ same setting, and narrator sets him right on a few points. That's it so far, but note that the very first chapter discusses her friendship w/ M., so one suspects that will be important to the plot, such as it is.

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