theMystery.doc

theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh, 1660 pages.
Long, and maybe intricate, maybe gnarled and knotted, this interwoven serices of narratives, conversations, reports, and transcriptions frequently involve characters named "M," Matt, Matthew, or McIntosh, just like the author. M's father is dying. One character has a beautiful wife, but is having an affair with his neighbor's high-school aged daughter, while he endlessly works on a mysterious book, but he remembers none of this. I found it fun and readable, but endlessly confusing. I have before read 1200 pages of a book and thought "there's only about 450 pages left in this book, I hope I figure out what the book's about soon" (I did not figure it out). Reminiscent of Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves if not in style, then at least in it's sense of typographical playfulness, with pages of pictures from old movies and pages of asterisks and other typographical symbols alternately moving the story along and adding to the confusion. Fun to read if you don't mind non-linear,experimental, or just plain odd fiction.