Will SelfUmbrella

This book sets the stage for "Shark," so you will presumably want to read both. Therefore, I am writing essentially the same review for both books. Not everybody will like these books, as they are not page-turners. But if you love a literary challenge, on the order of, say, "Finnegan's Wake," you are in for a treat. Self doesn't bother with literary conveniences such as chapters, or, by the time you get to "Shark," even paragraphs.Sentences go back and forth between present observations and the babble inside the minds of the characters, the most important of whom are mental patients on powerful drugs. And in the middle of any sentence, one may jump from one person's mind to another, without warning or notice. Somewhat similar to techniques mastered by Pynchon, but compared to this book, Gravity's Rainbow is like Cat in the Hat. If you get through it, you will feel satisfied--in the way you might take pride in completing a 25,000-piece jigsaw puzzle depicting a psychedelic pattern. You may also emerge with some new insights about war, mental illness, psychedelics, and life in general. I'm glad I made it to the end, but my head is exhausted and I'm ready to relax with a nice, relatively linear Jo Nesbo mystery.

I was having a lot of fun reading this novel. Will Self's work was new to me, so I was encouraged by a rave review to pre-order "Umbrella" and, at first, I was glad I had. (I also ordered every other book of his that I could find at the time.)Very enjoyable though a puzzle at times is his attempt at transcribing Cockney into prose. "Double-you-see" took me a moment, but a reference to "the jakes" made it clear that WC was meant. Very funny.Less enjoyable was the more and more frequent mishandling of text, with for example double-effs rendered as "[" (but not always) or words simply with holes in their middles ("naming these things as they are shur ed before her" - huh?).Finally (at 19% into the book) I gave up and returned it for credit. Too bad. Now I'll have to get the print version, hoping that a competent and complete copy editing job has been done. The Kindle version (as of today) just doesn't cut it.

Umbrella may now become the greatest novel I've ever read; until now it was Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, which I now have to go back and re-re-re-read. Many others have compared Umbrella to Gravity's and the comparisons are apt. Both works are brilliant, both require you read carefully and with a dictionary at your side (and maybe an additional medical dictionary in the case of Umbrella), both take risks with the numerous interconnections, digressions and changes of scene or viewpoint and both try to explain the meaning of modern life, including the impact of technology on personality. My take on Gravity's has always been that sentence by sentence it was the best ever but, at the end of the book, I really didn't understand it. Umbrella may now be the better book IMO because sentence by sentence it is superb and, at the end of the book, I do feel that I understand well, much of it.I've now read Umbrella three times: once on my ipad, and then reading in hard cover during the day and re-reading much of the same again on my ipad at night. That immediate reinforcement of what I just read helped immeasurably. Of course, i could still read it again profitably.Umbrella, however, has its problems. Most importantly, Self's gimmicky refusal to use paragraphs or chapters just doesn't add anything. Not that I am against what he is attempting, to force the reader into an immediate "thisness" (my word) of what is happening and the connections to memory, to the concept of time, and to the other characters. Perhaps if he had actually changed scenes and perspectives in a way that eventually made sense, say the same event as viewed by different characters, or an event triggering a memory of the same character, i would say well it was difficult but in the end it worked. Here I think in the end, the formatting, actually lack of formatting, did not work. I do not think the reader receives a payoff for the pain she has to go through. Finally, there are just too many confusion-causing sentences that are not later addressed or explained. Most of the questions I wrote in the margins as I read still were not answered at the end. Just one example, I did happen to know who "Ronnie" is--brilliant but controversial psychiatric theorist R.D. Laing, who rose to fame, especially in the mental health counter culture, in the 70s. But if a reader didn't know that at the beginning, she still wouldn't know it at the end.All in all a superb work. I absolutely recommend and i think it is important to read in a physical book, as opposed to ipad--ipad is ok for an additional reading. But Self too often played with the readers in a way that ultimately was a bit unfair.Now, I have to get onto Gravity's again!

It is fair to say that this is very much a marmite book - you will either go with the flow, read and enjoy, or struggle and hate this intriguing novel. It employs modernism, stream of consciousness and the storyline (such as it is) runs between times and characters. The novel takes the viewpoint of two main characters: the psychiatrist Dr Zachary Busner at Friern Hospital and patient Audrey Dearth.When Busner begins work at Friern Hospital he is allocated two chronic wards. This is a place of endless corridors, psychiatric orderlies who employ "thump therapy" and patients who wear canvas tunics, said to resemble a uniform "for a slave labourer". Busner has an embittered wife, Miriam, and young children. He also has a brother who suffers from a mental illness and an interest in patients suffering from the somnolent-opthalmogic form of encephalitis lethargica ('sleepy sickness'). This came before the Spanish Flu epidemic at the end of WWI and Busner tells his wife about Audrey Dearth, a patient who may be one of hundreds scattered throughout asylums, who suffered the virus and have nothing psychologically wrong with them. Less than impressed, Miriam responds with a plea for him to show less enthusiasm and spend less time poring over patient notes and more with his family. Yet Busner visits other doctors who disagreed with the original diagnosis and attempts to investigate other patients with the same possible condition.This novel veers between Busner's story and that of patient Audrey Dearth. We are taken through Audrey's life, from her childhood onwards and from Busner's investigations to his memories in later years. I know the building he writes about well, as I live near it, and thought he captured the sheer size and scale of the place beautifully. This is not an easy read - there is a place for both nice relaxing books and ones that require concentration and commitment. Although this book can be difficult at times - you need to keep your mind on the text to know who and when you are reading about - it is worth perservering with and it is enjoyable, with characters you care about, and it is the characters that matter in any novel.

Wow, at times this was hard going but I think worth it in the end. The characters were interesting however Mr Self didn't make it easy to get to know them with individuals skipping in and out of the text going forward and back in time. I realise that the plot of "Awakenings" was useful to provide a tool to bring out all sorts of mental patient/psychiatrist stuff as well as provide a way of diving back in time, but it did remove any sort of suspense in what might happen at the end.Only for the committed reader.

Began to read this knowing it wasn't gonna be easily digestible. Didn't understand the majority of the text but just ploughed on and tried to "immerse" as recommended. 20% the way through gave up. I was just reading words on every page that meant absolutely nothing. Completely futile. Angry with myself for not comprehending or being able to wring any enjoyment out of it. I just didn't know what the hell was going on.I really don't know what kind of person will get on with this book. Perhaps I'm not intelligent or cultured enough to gain references from the text etc. Way beyond my reading capabilities.

It was the first Self book that I have read. I like listening and reading his journalism and don't mind the extensive vocabulary. This book was difficult for me to read at first as I don't read a lot of literature but his way of creating imagery with words kept me interested and as things cleared become a fun read. I particularly, liked the passages relating to the assault on the Ypres Salient which left me feeling a bit strange with odd images in my head.I probably will have to read it a second time someday but for now will try his next book in the trilogy, "Shark".

Books can be difficult because of the subject matter, because the writer wants to encourage readers to grasp things for themselves, or even because of just plain bad writing. Books can also be difficult because the writer thinks this is the only way he or she will be taken seriously as an author. It is perhaps to Mr Self’s credit that despite the interpretative challenges presented by such an ambitious and, for the most part, over-wrought work, he leaves the patient reader little doubt which category this novel falls into.