Vincent Tijms reviewed Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru
Review of 'Gods Without Men' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
My browser ate my extensive review as I switched the edition of this book. You know how that feels. So let me just sum up the important points, while acknowledging that there's much more to this book than I'm mentioning here.
This book is fantastic. Crazily awesome fantastic must-read material.
Juxtaposing different stories set at the same locale allowed Kunzru to suggest connections, without making them explicit. This leads to typical literary analysis: all characters struggle with understanding and controlling the world and each other, etc. However, it also leads to a sense of connectivity. The reader feels that the stories are somehow more interwoven than is apparent. The reader feels that the mysterious rock formation is somehow involved. Still, the reader can only guess as to what these connections are.
The beautiful thing about this is that many of the book's characters have similar sentiments. They are indeed …
My browser ate my extensive review as I switched the edition of this book. You know how that feels. So let me just sum up the important points, while acknowledging that there's much more to this book than I'm mentioning here.
This book is fantastic. Crazily awesome fantastic must-read material.
Juxtaposing different stories set at the same locale allowed Kunzru to suggest connections, without making them explicit. This leads to typical literary analysis: all characters struggle with understanding and controlling the world and each other, etc. However, it also leads to a sense of connectivity. The reader feels that the stories are somehow more interwoven than is apparent. The reader feels that the mysterious rock formation is somehow involved. Still, the reader can only guess as to what these connections are.
The beautiful thing about this is that many of the book's characters have similar sentiments. They are indeed trying to figure out the world and -- as the cosmos turns out to be a swirling blob of chaos and contingencies, as cultural differences turn out to be unsurmountable obstacles and as psychological differences stand in the way of true understanding -- they fail miserably. All that is ultimately left is that vague, but wonderful feeling that there is some meaning out there. Some characters have convinced themselves that they know this meaning, while some take a more humble approach.
Kunzru pulls off some clever literary tricks to nourish the vague, but wonderful feeling. By not explaining and by suggesting connections that are almost impossible to infer, he leaves the reader in a cognitively suspended state. One might be tempted to ascribe this to laziness, but the gaps contrast with the extensive research that is apparent from Kunzru's descriptions of characters, periods and locales. This way, the tension between information and understanding is present in both form and content.
Such tension, finally, is what makes the book so interesting in this day and age. On the one hand, Kunzru explores an old, perhaps worn theological question regarding the mysterious nature of religion. This puts him in a broader cultural movement that examines the roots and consequences of religious practice. On the other hand, however, Kunzru reflects on the fruits of the information age. This age allows him to effectively research what it is like being a 19th-century silver miner in eastern California, it allows some of his characters to ride and manipulate the global economy and offers others some straws to clutch at when dealing with an autistic child. But information does not equate understanding, and so even now, we're stuck with the same questions as always.
Embracing the mystery is one way out of this, Kunzru suggests. It allows to reader to feel what the characters feel and it allows the character to deal with the cards with they've been dealt. As such an embrace is often religious in nature, it is no wonder that religion still persists - the great thing about Gods Without Men is that is does not make this argument explicitly, but allows you to feel it.