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Tim Wirkus

Autor/a de The Infinite Future

3+ obres 96 Membres 7 Ressenyes

Obres de Tim Wirkus

The Infinite Future (2018) 76 exemplars
City Of Brick And Shadow (2014) 19 exemplars
Sandy Downs 1 exemplars

Obres associades

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013 (2013) — Col·laborador — 152 exemplars

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What just happened? That's the end?

I mean, I think it was brilliant...or crazy? As in, crazy like a fox? I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to think. I was glued to the story--the stories--because they're good, and then after writing 40-odd stories within stories, suddenly Tim Wirkus decides to...drop his narrative mid-beat? I don't know what he's trying to do and maybe I need to think about it more...or maybe I'm just not sophisticated and deep enough.

Okay, let me back up. If I was Wirkus, or Danny, or Harriet, or Sergio, or any number of other characters, I would tell you in detail how I found the book, who handed it to me, and how I forgot to read it because I was rushing to work, but then I stumbled upon it later, and as I began to read became absorbed in the mysticism of the tale. And the fact is, I very much enjoyed "The Infinite Future." It's one of those story-within-a-story-within-a-story stories, and Wirkus spins out story after story as each person has to tell every other person "what happened" with a perfectly constructed tale, not the quick off-the-cuff type stories you and I tell around the water coolers, but the kind that you only find in a novel, complete with descriptions of the environment, clothes, emotions, etc. But it works. Wirkus is a fantastic and creative storyteller.

Interwoven into the story are elements of the LDS faith, the Book of Mormon, and the culture and religion of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It seems like Wirkus is grappling with the faith--maybe his faith?--and the contradictions and trials of faith that modern members of the LDS Church have to deal with. What's less clear, and perhaps this is part of his point, is whether Wirkus has a conclusion. To boot, the book is as much a look at the creative life, at writers, and at the conflict between pursuing one's passion and pursuing a solid and stable career, and I'm not sure if it's an ancillary theme, or intentionally woven in with the religious themes.

Whatever the intent, Wirkus tells compelling and interesting stories, each one worthy on its own. I was often reminded of a quote from Orson Scott Card when responding to a question about where he finds story ideas: "Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any." Wirkus is capturing a few more than the five or six that a good writer finds. He just can't settle on any one particular story. He wants to tell them all, and he wants to weave into all of them the same narrative.

And then, with all those great stories, Wirkus suddenly spins to a narrative denouement and drops the whole thing mid-beat, ending the story, the novel, the whole thing, in the middle of a story. It's a bit unnerving and unexpected (I was listening to it--it's a great audiobook), and I went back and checked three times that I hadn't accidentally missed something. But no, it had ended unexpectedly and somewhat unsatisfyingly.

Maybe this is the whole point, to leave the reader with a sense of the incomplete nature of many of life's questions. I don't know. I am still unsure what to think, but maybe that's what metafiction is all about, right?
… (més)
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publiusdb | Hi ha 4 ressenyes més | Apr 4, 2023 |
So interesting. But too somber for me now.
 
Marcat
Je9 | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Aug 10, 2021 |
What a strange book. I guess the moral of the story is that a Mormon will find meaning and inspiration in the wackiest story. I don't mind replacing Jesus with a space pirate, actually. I think it would make the bible more engaging.
 
Marcat
Paul_S | Hi ha 4 ressenyes més | Dec 23, 2020 |
'The Infinite Future' involves nesting stories: There is a fictional 'Tim Wirkus' who receives this manuscript out of the blue from a distant acquaintance. The manuscript is the story of how the acquaintance, Danny, uncovers a literary mystery with two other people that leads them on a altogether different kind of spiritual quest. Danny begins as a former Morman missionary and financially strapped would-be author who has run afoul of the thugs of the religious-fiction industry. In Brazil, while doing research for a doomed novel he is befriended by a librarian, Sergio, who introduces him to an obscure Brazilian sf writer - Salgado-MacKenzie - who left hints of a trans-formative novel, 'The Infinite Future', and vanished without a trace. On their search for more answers they meet Harriet, an excommunicated Morman historian who had corresponded with the author some years before.

The three of them have little in common, but they are inextricably drawn together by what Salgado-Mackenzie's work makes them feel. Each finds themselves hinging their different hopes on what they may find when they track down the elusive author and the manuscript for his masterpiece. What they discover is too good a story to reveal here. The second half of the book is the novel-within-the-novel 'The Infinite Future'. Readers can judge for themselves its worth.
… (més)
 
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ManWithAnAgenda | Hi ha 4 ressenyes més | Feb 19, 2019 |

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Obres
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1
Membres
96
Popularitat
#196,089
Valoració
½ 3.5
Ressenyes
7
ISBN
7

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