That whole descriptive chapter of John watching the video was something else entirely and will stick with me for quite a while. The imagery in this book gets wild at times, but in the best way possible.All in all, this was very interesting. I actually still haven't read I Am Behind You but after reading this, I think I'm gonna make a start on that this week. I want to know more about the portal and the field itself. Apparently this all gets tied up rather neatly in the upcoming third part (or so I heard) so I guess I have to wait for that later this year.
But all in all, this was fascinating. From the early chapters following his almost autobiographical account of his young days, I was riveted with that alone. Seeing the seeds that led to LTROI with the story about the abused boy in the woods, his struggling days as a Magician, his almost friendship with the skinhead Thomas was especially interesting to me, Lars and his obsession with his sons 9th birthday (because that is obviously what he sees when entering the portal.) And then it ramps up in Part 3 and really sucked me in until I got to that ending.
I mean the obvious metaphor is that of drug addiction. You can't deny it. This small community becomes so consumed in that need to escape their dull, dreary lives and become engulfed by the other which promises them something better but at a cost. It's that yearning for a sense of belonging that I feel John does best with his writing and this one is no exception. I'm still curious about the white being at the end...like I said I guess I have to go read I Am Behind You and wait patiently for I Am The Tiger to wrap it up.
But yeah, I really enjoyed this. Especially that final part. It's somewhere between horror and autobiographical memoir, but all together it was a fascinating read that moved at a solid pace. Really enjoyed my time with this one.
