Grrr Fiction, Onto the Next Book

I remember one of the reasons why I stopped reading fiction – besides having my time almost completely consumed by school work and theory. As I finished James Flint’s Habitus last night, I was left with this puzzled, nagging, unfinished feeling. I read through almost 600 pages of rich descriptions and complex ideas only to (SPOILER ALERT) have everyone die in the last 3 pages and the looming theory/point of the book wrapped up in a few short paragraphs.

I used to love Margaret Atwood – I couldn’t read her books and stories fast enough. Until one day it dawned on me that she never really ever gave the reader closure. Indeed, some would say that this is what makes her great – always leaves the ending shrouded in ambiguity – up to the reader to think about it… perhaps never really coming to a firm conclusion … and that is when I stopped reading her books. It frustrated me to have to put the book down because there were no more pages to read.

Continuing my fiction marathon, I am almost embarrassed to share the title of my next selection. But not THAT embarrassed. Gibson‘s Virtual Light. I have only read two Gibson novels – All Tomorrow’s Parties (my introduction to Gibson’s writing) and Idoru. Since my academic research and personal interests surround ideas of identity, being and cyberspace, one would think I would have read all of his books by now!