Here’s an excerpt from Hubert O’Hearn’s review:
Here is what I admire about [Lance Olsen] […] He does not take the easy route. Ever.
Looking at the first book reviewed here, [[there.]], on the one hand it is a travel book; a diary of Lance’s 5 month stay at the American Academy in Berlin as a scholar in residence. However, this is not just a juicy memoir of where to get the best bratwurst, or a litany of brain-bursting hangovers, rather it is as close as one to come to the actual interaction a lively mind has while going through the experience of travel. Which is just what exactly?
[….]
The beauty of Theories of Forgetting is two-fold. One, it is going to be bloody hard for any cheesy little plagiarist to steal this text and slap it up on the internet. (Believe me, this is a major concern for writers and publishers alike). Second, it breaks from the standard formula of Main Character/Secondary Character/Supporting Character. Hugh, Alana, Aila and even Lance – who does not actually write a single word – are equally important. Wow. Just like real life. Wow. Just like all four sides of a pyramid are equally important, even the one unseen on the opposite side from the observer. Wow.
[….]
[[there.]] and Theories of Forgetting are not ‘chewing gum for the eyes,’ as Cleveland Amory described television. The reader must interact with Lance Olsen’s words and if taking a journey into one’s consciousness is not for you, well, then don’t bother. But if you really want to know what great writing in the 21st Century is all about … start here.
Read the rest of the review HERE.
Rhizomatic 