The Method Actors

Carl Shuker

10/29/2005

The teaser on the cover of this book says "This dense, ambitious, labyrinthine novel..." (Janet Finch). The Method Actors is certainly dense and labyrinthine. The book is set in 2000 (usually) Tokyo, focusing on young, well-to-do foreigners who live there. These twenty-somethings have drugs, alcohol, food, sex, and foreigness to draw them in and out of each others' circles. The drug of choice is usually legal, hallucinogenic mushrooms. They also have Michael Edwards as a focal point.

This book does not start at point A, move on to points B, C, D, and E then end at point F. Instead it starts around point B, then wanders between all the other points continuously until the final chapter that centers on E and F. But the end doesn't tie together the beginning or middle. This is a stream of consciousness novel.

Carl Shuker has written this book in fits and spurts, centering briefly on one character, then another. Although Michael Edwards is the focal point, he is always an "off the screen" character after he disappears in the prologue. I'm not sure what the reader is supposed to get from this novel. Although I know the characters better by the end, they are still mysterious and lost. There is a long section near the end of a period in Japan's history 400 or 500 years ago that doesn't have much to do with the rest of the book rather than the fact that Michael sent it to his sister and is interested in it. Yet is it supposed to be the point? Is Shuker saying that history is doomed to repeat itself?

This is not my normal style of reading. I don't remember what review made me think I would like it. Yet once I started reading, I couldn't not finish it. I was often confused (sometimes I think I was confused through the whole thing). Something in Shuker's writing style kept me pulled in anyway. At times I was disgusted, especially at some graphic war descriptions. At times I was bored. But I still had to finish this book. So how would I rate this book?

The writing is well done or I wouldn't have been compelled to keep going (and I'll admit there were times I just skimmed because it was so dense). Negative emotions are tugged at. But this is a book the reader has to work at. It's not for the light reader who wants to forget the world around him or her. It starts but doesn't end many different story lines (like real life). I'm not going to tell you to run out and read this book. In fact I would warn you away because of its strangeness. But it could be that strangeness that appeals to you. Just don't say I didn't warn you when you're feeling lost and confused while reading it.

You can find more about this book at .

Notice: Explicit violence, drug, and sexual situations