Only Revolutions

Title: Only Revolutions
Author: Mark C. Danielewski
ISBN: 0375421769
Publication: Pantheon, September 12, 2006

This post-modern, genre-defying, maze of a book is by far the most fascinating work of literary art I've picked up since college. I am not through exploring Only Revolutions, but I think it's marvelous. This is not a book you can read, it's a labyrinth you have to travel. It's challenging if you try to make too much sense of it, but I think that must be purposeful. The formatting is the first thing that sets the reader off-balance from the first moment you pick up the book and try to find it's front cover! There is also some creative use of color and typeface that seem to relate to the covers and perhaps some deeper underlying current that I haven't fully understood.

In addition to the unusual structure, the story itself is a complex interweaving of lives, true history, and heady accounts of life from the perspective of youth. Each page is something like a journal entry, and the novel stitches together over 200 days in the lives of Hailey and Sam who are perpetually 16. The characters themselves are as eccentric as the times they live in. Like the two teens, Only Revolutions is a force unto itself that could never be confused for another.

The physical layout of the book is so complex, I leave it to wikipedia to describe:

Only Revolutions is printed in such a way that both covers appear to be the front of the book. The side with the green cover is the story as told by Sam, and the side with the gold cover is the story as told by Hailey. Every page contains upside-down text in the bottom margin, which is actually later pages of the opposite volume. For example, the first page of Hailey's story contains the last several lines of Sam's story, apparently upside down. When you reach that page while reading Sam's story, those lines will appear to be the only right-side-up text on the page.

The first letter of each 8 page "section" is larger and bold when compared to the other letters. When the reader puts the single letters together from Hailey's side they spell out "Sam and Hailey and Sam and Hailey..." etc. When read from Sam's side, they spell out "Hailey and Sam and Hailey and Sam..." etc.

Each half-page contains exactly 90 words. When both stories are combined, the words add together for a total of 180 words per page, perhaps to symbolize the 180 degrees the reader must turn the book to read the opposite volume.

The publisher recommends the reading of eight pages from one story, then the other, and so on.

In addition, every page contains a sidebar with a date and a list of world events that happened between that date and the one which appears on the next page. Dates in Sam's story run from Nov 22, 1863 to Nov 22, 1963, while dates in Hailey's story run from Nov 22, 1963 to Jan 19, 2063. This chronological sidebar, which offers a mosaic of 19th - 21st Century historical quotations, becomes blank after Only Revolutions' own publication date. The diverging point between Sam's line and Hailey's line is set at the date of the John F. Kennedy assassination, November 22, 1963.

I was very intimidated by the format, and so held onto the curiosity for months before I really delved into the story. When I began to read, I was struck by the fact that while this book clearly labels itself "A Novel" on it's cover (both covers!) it seems more like poetry to me.

If you like to read for the sake of reading - or if you really want something to challenge and twist your mind - this is the book for you. I guarantee you've never met a book like it!