Like river, like knot

I often find myself reading several books at once, especially if I’m making my way through nonfiction, which I dislike as entertainment but find occasionally useful. It usually takes just a few paragraphs to get back into that particular story. Some people find this strange, yet they probably follow several weekly or daily TV serials without any less enjoyment.

Some of the books I have read recently however incorporate multiple voices and span years and intertwined plotlines to a point that they move and breathe like multiple intersected novels. One example of that is Sacred Games, a wonderful book whose narrative I follow like current on a river. Other mysteries feel more like knots, convoluted but tight and matter-of-factly.

Most hard boiled falls into this category, Also I love Sue Grafton’s series not just because of its local focus but also for its simple, efficient approach to narrative. Speaking of knots, I’m currently reading also N is for Noose, and it’s difficult to think that these two novels are even in the same genre. I’m not interested in matters of artistic value, of course: all I care for, at least during this month, is to dissect what works, and find out what makes it tick.

So will my novel be like a river or like a knot? Of course I have no ambition to write something with the details and complexity of Vikram Chandra’s novel (which took seven years to complete, something like 84 times the length of NaNoWriMo) but as I move along I find out more about how things work. Initially everything feels like white water rapids, unformed, incomplete ideas spraying around, increasing possibility of sinking or being thrown off course. Then one goes back, little by little, tying the knot.

And that’s what I’m going to do today