Harald Hansen

This is a fascinating jumble of exaggerated and subtly humorous threads on religion, politics, sociology, physics, software engineering, mythology, and sex (yes, this book is R rated), tossed onto the mundane life of a Willie Loman-like hero. But the story fell apart for me in the climactic scene where all these wild ideas collide in chaos rather than coalescing into any intelligible pattern. If it had worked it would have reminded me of an old Pink Panther movie scene where all the characters race through the village square one after another in a chase including someone in a gorilla suit driving a convertible. Unfortunately, I got confused, and although the story continues, the remaining scenes fail to adequately illuminate the meaning. Despite my disappointment with the overall structure of this novel I liked the style, and I eagerly look forward to reading other works by Hansen. He seems like a kindred spirit who has read my own novels in a parallel universe and glued their concepts together again into his own kaleidoscopic vision of reality.… (més)