Book #154 of 2017:
S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
S., as written by Doug Dorst from an original idea by J.J. Abrams, is an incredibly immersive reading experience. It’s produced to resemble an old library book, complete with handwritten notes in the novel’s margins, and the physicality of that product makes it easy to imagine that you’ve stumbled across an actual copy of Ship of Theseus (the book within the book) yourself.
As we learn from the marginalia, Ship of Theseus is the final novel by mysterious author V. M. Straka, whose true identity has never been revealed but who is rumored to have been part of a clandestine organization of freedom fighters whose secrets may be hidden within the pages of that very novel. The margin notes are presented as coming from two readers who have passed this copy of Ship of Theseus back and forth, leaving messages for one another as they attempt to uncover the truth behind Straka and related mysteries.
It’s a tough book to read, especially since the margin notes are not in chronological writing order and thus present an immediate challenge of approach. (The readers switch pen colors several times, which helps to date their comments, but even within a color scheme, they leave notes scattered backwards and forwards throughout the text of Ship of Theseus, generally near a passage that relates to or resonates with their latest message.) I opted to embrace the physical aspect of the book and read all the marginalia as they appeared, calling on my Doctor Who experience to try and keep the timeline relatively straight in my head, but I know other readers will recommend reading through the entire text of Ship of Theseus, then the notes in pencil, then the notes in black and blue ink, and so on. Dorst and Abrams have left such decisions in the hands of their readers, which is admittedly somewhat frustrating but ultimately adds to S.’s strange appeal as a faux found object with no guidebook.
Of course, all of this stylistic experimentation would be nothing without a solid story behind it, but S. by and large delivers on that front as well. The novel Ship of Theseus tells of an amnesiac man caught up in a struggle against a powerful arms dealer – which may or may not be a fictionalized version of events from author Straka’s own life – and it’s told in a rich magical realist prose that calls to mind the “Tales of the Black Freighter” comic-within-a-comic from Watchmen. The two readers communicating in the margins of the novel are a college senior and a graduate student, each going through something of a personal crisis as they delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding Straka and get to know one another better through their notes. Both their story and the Ship of Theseus novel contain some profound reflections on the nature of identity and how people and organizations change over time, leaving behind earlier aspects while still on some level retaining continuity.
I think S. as a whole is probably something you’ll either love or hate. There’s certainly an argument that the presentation is a gimmick, and it’s a little like the A Series of Unfortunate Events books in that the mysteries driving the plot are not all resolved neatly by the end. Nevertheless, I absolutely loved getting lost in this world and feeling like I was reading the book that those students had just set down somewhere. I’m sure this kind of thing will not be to everyone’s tastes, but it was perfect for me.
★★★★★
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