The Way Through Doors

Not so much a book as a series of little poems seamlessly woven together into a novel. Although the characters are consistent, you will often find that everything else is subject to question. Imagine the strange world of Willy Wonka, and then turn it on it's head, make it 10 times weirder, and give it literary credibility. This book will make your strangest, most incoherent dream seem as rote as 8th grade history class. If you like a nice solid story with everything wrapped up and packaged then please spare yourself the agony of this book. If you enjoy stream of consciousness, and don't mind walking dogs, and stories that shift location in mid-paragraph, then you will likely enjoy this book. Easily one of the most engaging and fascinating reads in a long, long, time.

I love this book. It's very... interesting and extremely confusing, but it's so worth the bizarreness. While reading this, I found myself turning to whoever I was sitting near and saying "THis book is so strange!" several times. If you love James Joyce and C.S. Lewis, this would be a great book for you. To me it had the exact same feel as "The Magician's Nephew". I recommend this to anyone who is willing to work at understanding a novel

this is unlike anything I've read and if I'd not have seen some great reviews of the piece I'd never have picked it up... I'm glad I did... it is no where near a traditional novel in any sense... the imagery is at the same time frustrating as satisfying; the work completely engrossing... only a poet could have done with these words what has been done and as I found myself reading pieces of it aloud I was enamored with the structure of the metre and cadence... I loved it!

Jesse Ball's second novel with Vintage may confuse and frustrate some. I daresay this is of no import to Mr. Ball, though I could be mistaken. Indeed, there is a care for both the characters and the reader in this book, accompanied by an understanding that not all may find the book as engaging or enjoyable as others. I'll spare you a recounting of events and names found within in favor of attempting to convey the experience of reading The Way Through Doors. As with his previous book, this one makes reality seem blurry. In fact, it is handily placed out of reach as if to say, "you need not be concerned with this, dear reader. Please join me for the experiences and playfulness I hope to share with you." In this sense reading any work by Ball requires a sort of trust and submission to the story. Obviously, only through the reader's agency to engage the text in the first place does the book take on life, but one's expectations should be checked upon opening the book; any preconceptions should be vanquished. Why such hyperbole? Because the thread of this book may not even end up being a thread! It may end up a web, and if the reader struggles or resists it may entrap and cause discomfort. If the reader relaxes into it, the web serves nicely as a hammock of sorts, though dozing off is strictly prohibited; one must pay full attention to the swirls of characters and events moving throughout the web. Some of these swirls are more brightly-colored than others, though any number of these will make an imprint on your psyche and linger as pleasant images in the mind's eye. There is a playful nature to Ball's writing, though you may find it manifesting as glee in one example, and shortly after it may emerge very dire and obfuscated, like reveling in the macabre. Others have noted his work does not follow many conventions of the novel. There have been writers who discarded these conventions in disgust and furrowed their brows to create a sort of reaction to the novel. Not so Jesse Ball: in this regard he comes off as playing with the conventions, folding and re-folding them into forms--whether paper airplane, origami crane or something never before seen--which please him.

One day, a young man named Selah Morse, municipal inspector, witnesses a young woman get hit by a taxicab. He takes her to the hospital and tells the doctors that he is her boyfriend; the young woman has lost her memory and remembers nothing about herself, and Selah is charged with taking care of her and trying to help her regain her past. So, he tells her a story. Not just one story though, but a bunch--all wound together and interconnected. We hear about Loren Darius, a lucky gambler who has everything, until he bets away his wife for a skin of water. We hear about an empress of Russia, who is so burned when a man rejects her love that she takes every possible step to ruin his life utterly. We hear about Morris the tree climber and far walker, and his family at the bottom of the tallest building in the city, of which no one has ever known, due to its location in a very deep hole. We meet the guest artist who can tell you what you're thinking in three guesses or less. In between, we hear of Sif, girlfriend of the pamphleteer working on his lifelong project WF 7 J 1978. And, strung between all of these stories, we follow Selah's travels in search of the woman Mora Klein, the name he has given to the young woman who got hit by the taxicab. If this all sounds a bit confusing, don't fret. /The Way Through Doors/ is Jesse Ball's second novel, at turns, perplexing, insightful, and uplifting, and sometimes all of the above at once. Throughout, it remains consistently engaging. These stories overlap and trail into each other seamlessly, often in the guise of dreams, stories within the story, or speeches. Characters are introduced, then later reappear--either in retellings of the original story or in a seemingly-unrelated story, tying plotlines together. I'll admit that, more than once, I had to go back a few pages to determine when the story changed and why I hadn't fully noticed. It may have been hard to follow, but the exquisiteness of Ball's writing helps you let go of conventional writing and just go with the flow. I thoroughly enjoyed /The Way Through Doors/, and I know it won't be long before I'm drawn back to give this complex story another go. Reviewed by Holly Scudero