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Michael Marshall Smith's surreal, groundbreaking, and award-winning debut which resonates with wild humour interlaced with dark recollections of an emotional minefield. Stark lives in Colour, a neighbourhood whose inhabitants like to be co-ordinated with their surroundings - a neighbourhood where spangly purple trousers are admired by the walls of buildings as you pass them. Close by is Sound, where you mustn't make any, apart from one designated hour a day when you can scream your lungs raw. Then there's Red - get off at Fuck Station Zero if you want to see a tactical nuclear battle recreated as a sales demonstration.Stark has friends in Red, which is just as well because Something is about to happen. And when a Something happens it's no good chanting 'Duck and cover' while cowering in a corner, because a Something is always from the past, Stark's past, and it won't go away until you face it full on.
Stark, a man navigating a reality composed of bizarre, compartmentalized neighborhoods, must confront a looming, existential threat from his own buried history. Stark operates as a freelance problem-solver within a world where geography is defined by sensory and thematic extremes, such as the silent zone of Sound or the violent, commercialized landscape of Red. His objective is to survive the manifestation of a 'Something'—a recurring, inescapable phenomenon that forces him to reconcile with past trauma. The narrative utilizes a surrealist framework to explore the protagonist's internal landscape, blending dark humor with a sense of impending dread as the boundaries between his environment and his memories dissolve.
This debut novel is frequently characterized by its inventive, high-concept premise and its ability to blend disparate genres into a cohesive, surreal narrative. The work is noted for its sharp, cynical wit and the way it uses its bizarre setting to externalize the protagonist's internal psychological conflicts. Readers often highlight the author's unique voice and the imaginative, often unsettling, nature of the world-building. The narrative structure is seen as a deliberate reflection of the protagonist's fragmented mental state, creating a reading experience that is both disorienting and intellectually engaging.
Page Count:
320
Publication Date:
1998-07-06
Publisher:
HarperCollins
ISBN-10:
0006512666
ISBN-13:
9780006512660
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