Rounding off the Sheep Chase

The conclusion of A Wild Sheep Chase is, thankfully, satisfying. Which makes me wonder if there's something to the criticisms of 1Q84 and its being unfocused.

It's a sad ending, however, like a napkin named happiness that's been used to dab up the spilled milk of melancholy. Though, reading the ending, the very final sentence evoked the same feeling as gently waking from a dream. Not a pleasant dream, not a terrifying dream, not a dream that you wish to return to, nor a dream that you wish you could never have again in your life. Just a dream. And wow, what an effect that is for a book to have.

Though, it's disappointing that we never do learn the main character's name. I mean, it would have been helpful to know who he is, even if in the end it's clear that who he is isn't important since he's just an anybody. 'A mediocre person in a mediocre world,' as the man in the black suit might quip. Though I don't think he'd quip with much of anything based on the news that the lead's girlfriend will never be seen again. There's that melancholy.

There's also more of what I'll dub "Lynch" in the last 50 pages of the book. A scene in which the main character talks with someone who is dead and who had been possessed by the sheep.

The way the sheep is described makes it sound so much more malevolent than the way it's described in the start of the book. But what really makes this scene Lynchian, is it's being set in the house on the mountain top as it is dimmed and the heater halts. And the person that he meets, the way his rubbing his hands together is described, makes me think immediately of Mike from the Black Lodge. David Lynch *must have* read this book - or at least been aware of it. It's got the exact same supernatural quality as Twin Peaks, and Lynch's oeuvre more generally.

Up next, The History of Nintendo Vol. 2: The Game & Watch games, an incredible invention.