The experimental novel, if it can be considered a genre, is rife with fascinating and innovative books, which unfortunately spur the question: Was this written to entertain and enrich the readers or simply the author? Mark Z. Danielewski's effort ""Only Revolutions"" provides no definitive answer to that question.
As with his previous odyssey ""House of Leaves,"" ""Revolutions"" is a demanding work, requiring careful examination and a critical eye to squeeze meaning from its mysticism. ""Revolutions"" uses two narrators, 16-year-olds Sam and Hailey, youths who run away from everything and headlong into each other.
Each tell their tale in eight-page sections, starting at opposite ends of the book, forcing the reader to flip and turn the book. This theme of revolutions is hammered throughout the work, to the extent that it loses much of its potential meaning. Sam and Hailey tell what is ostensibly the same story, but with different language, different tones and different details.
The dichotomy of the storytelling is repetitive yet whimsical, and exists even when the narrators agree, as when Sam buys a pair of shoes for Hailey. In his eyes, they are ""suited more for piebovine clogs she's flabbergasted by my charitable charms, at once terribly tearful with lobbly arms."" Hailey, though appreciative of the gesture, sees the gift as ""way loose, way appalling. What shitkicker barges for my delicate steps?!""
Repetitive symbology plays a major role in ""Revolutions."" Some seem easy to understand, as with the spelling of ""allone,"" which along with its usage shows the teens to be ""allone"" when together yet ""all one"" when apart. This intertwines with the feeling of ""US"" and ""Them."" The lovers speak of their jaunt in idyllic terms, a paradise only they inhabit. Sam and Hailey provide perfect summation of the book, fittingly on page 180/181, as they say ""Everyone dreams the Dream but we are it.""
Albeit gimmicky and at times obtuse, there is a ferocious glee to the writing that meshes beautifully with the story itself, which is in simplest terms a modern-day epic love poem. Sam and Hailey's relationship blooms as rapidly as their tearing through towns and time alike, progressing from lustful teenage fantasy into full-borne obsession. Side notes mark the passage of time from 1863 to empty notations up through 2063. When asked if ""[they] got the time?,"" they reply, ""We are the time.""
Danielewski veers from not only a typical narrative but typical language. ""Revolutions"" has exactly 180 words per page, all in freeform, flowing poetry. Alliteration, rhyming and onomotopaeaic descriptions pepper each page, yet its most impressive achievement is Danielewski's ability to evoke emotion with his clipped, fragmentary sentences. His portrayals of uncompromising love and primal sexuality are nothing less than marvelous.
With ""Only Revolutions,"" Danielewski has provided something not to be read, but examined, and not to be enjoyed, but admired. While an impressive work, the question remains whether it belongs on the bookshelf or framed above the fireplace.
