I think I should count reading this book as an accomplishment of sorts... like, it should have a special place in my CV and everything.
It’s been four(ish) days since I’ve finished reading this book, four days which I’ve spent trying to put at least some of my impressions into words which would hopefully form at least somewhat coherent sentences. Well, I give up. It is simply impossible to sum up my impressions, mostly because, apparently, there aren’t any impressions to sum up, or – somewhat more likely – there are far too many impressions than I’m prepared (and equipped) to deal with at the moment. To put it in a less annoying manner – just thinking about my thoughts about this book is just so dashed overwhelming.
That’s not to say I don't have any opinion whatsoever about whatever the thing that I read is this novel – it’s just that all my current opinions/impressions tend to be rather contradictory. For example, at the moment, I’m utterly unable to figure out whether I actually loved it or hated it... or, not impossibly and far more likely – both. I’m not even sure whether I enjoyed reading it at all – I have a rather vague impressions I sort of did, but not in the traditionally accepted meaning of the word.
The only thing I’m certain of is that I utterly loved/hated the ending... mostly because it was
so spectacularly inconclusive and unsatisfying on
so many levels that it still irks me to no end, albeit in a possibly pleasant-ish way.
In any case, five stars are for the overall feat or whatsit – it made my brain ache at various stages... and any book capable of doing that deserves five stars... and a biscuit.
There is a good chance that I'm just far too easily amused, but I actually loved the completely insanse, but nonetheless very original idea of (hidden) confessions of the Ripper murders anagrammatically incorporated into Lewis Carroll's books, letters and just about everything he ever wrote. However, the fact that he formed sentences using letters which, when rearranged in various ways, can form other (far less sensible) sentences is actually not enough to convince me that Carroll WAS, in fact, Jack the Ripper.
