Castleview and Beyond
Last week, I galloped through Gene Wolfe‘s Castleview. It was a very enjoyable read, but I can’t say that I’ve figured everything out yet. Not by a long shot. In fact, it’s one of the more mysterious Wolfe novels I’ve read.
Most of the story is fairly straightforward: a family moves to the town of Castleview and rapidly gets caught up in strange events with another overlapping world, the world of the castle, all of which has something to do with the King Arthur story.
But then the questions start. If the book were by another writer, I might conclude that it was simply full of odd plot holes, but this is Gene Wolfe, the lover of puzzles and the guy who, by his own testimony, gives a clue only once. Which means that these things probably wouldn’t seem like holes if only I had caught all the clues.
The book was a lot of fun. And now I’m on to Chaim Potok’s The Book of Lights. I’ve always loved Potok’s ability to draw his readers into the world(s) of Judaism, and this book is no exception.