In the Pink? (Pink - Gus Van Sant)

Member Name: Foxy-Lady

Product:	Pink - Gus Van Sant
Date:	29/01/05 (739 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quirky...

Disadvantages: ...but TOO quirky

“The one thing that you can be really, really sure of is that there is more. There’s more in the sense that there’s a future, you know, an hour from now, something else that’s a weird disconnected part of now....But you can be sure that in an hour from now there will be some more of what we have right now....And that’s the kind of wild, unbelievable thing about reality. It doesn’t occur to you when you’re part of it, because reality is all about what’s real and what’s in this reality....But if you just think about the other realities, it becomes unbelievably dumbfounding” - GUS VAN SANT



Gus Van Sant is better known as the independent film maker who directed ‘Drugstore Cowboy’, ‘My Own Private Idaho’, ‘Good Will Hunting’ and ‘To Die For’. During the late 1990’s, with his thought processes firmly planted amidst concepts of alternate realities and unknown dimensions, he ventured into the medium of literature to create his first novel ‘Pink’.

Van Sants fictional debut tells the story of homosexual Spunky. He is a middle aged informmercial director who is desperately trying to find his next project, finish the screenplay that he hopes will bring him fame and fortune, whilst also struggling to come to terms with the death of his friend, Felix, which has conjured up claustrophobic thoughts of space and time.

Two young aspiring film makers, Jack and Matt, enter the story and Spunky becomes infatuated by their mysterious auras, especially as Jack bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Felix. It becomes completely obvious, and it is actually revealed early on in the story, that these two characters are not what they appear to be - they are from Pink, a dimension in which linear time does not exist. It is a mysterious realm where time and loss can be recovered. The book basically follows Spunkys strange friendship with the pair which develops throughout.

By the time the story reaches its climax, the reader has already figured out what is going to happen and the way in which it is delivered is very unsatisfying. The main problem is that the storyline itself is far too weak. The potential is there but much more could have been made of it.

I think Van Sant has tried to create something different with his book and I can honestly say that he has succeeded. It is certainly what I would call experimental literature but although I appreciated his off the wall attempt, I feel that alone is not enough to make the book as captivating as it could be.

It uses a style which jumps around and slowly pieces together the tale. Initially this is a fun concept but it quickly becomes boring. Spunky tells most of what story there is but other narratives frequently interrupt him. The array of different voices are signified by varying typefaces to make them easily distinguishable. These narrative shifts include excerpts of a surreal Science Fiction action film that Spunky is writing and the story of Blake, a rock star who has a compulsive addiction to buying heavy plant machinery.

Pink also employs footnotes on most pages which are provided by a third omniscient voice. I must admit that most of these are completely unnecessary as they contain short descriptions of random characters that briefly appear in the main text then disappear, never to be mentioned again! For me, the footnotes just slowed the book down.

It is clear that Van Sant has applied his visual quirkiness to his book. Throughout the novel there are also line drawings. These small sketches illustrate the story, a series of which feature in the bottom corner and can be put in motion like a flip cartoon!

The playful combination of visual and textual elements creates an unconventional novel which has an unusual texture but unfortunately comes across as being slightly erratic and unfocused. The fact that it is a bit ‘wacky’ and disjointed does mean that it has an essence of being fresh and new but I think that Pink is guilty of being too creative. Too much attention has been paid to the ‘interior design’ of the book and not enough to the actual words. Van Sant leaves too many loose ends and there are so many metaphors that could be clever but are too thinly developed.

I also found it quite strange to read some of the obvious autobiographical references. Van Sant doesn’t try to hide the fact that Pink is inspired by the death of River Phoenix, in fact the novel is dedicated to him in a poem that features right at the start. Van Sant admits that he was distraught after the death of Phoenix. He says they were always looking forward to doing their next film together but never got the chance.


“This book is very much influenced by River....a lot of the stuff, you could say, is a reaction to his death. The impetus of me writing is him dying....I don’t feel like masking that sort of inspiration for the book although it could be about anyone dying. It’s really about a character that’s grieving. It’s not necessarily even grieving, it’s just that you can’t figure out what happens, you know, where you go when you die. So everything is centred around that investigation” - GUS VAN SANT


You could say that Pink is therefore a memoir of sorts - a journal entry to the memory of a lost friend.

Characters within the book are all trying to find the ‘real’ in a world of image and are not-so-subtle shadows of people with whom we are quite familiar, for example Keanu Reeves, Kurt Cobain and of course, River Phoenix. There are also numerous other personal influences and references. The book itself is a satire on the movie business in which Van Sant has obvious experience and his own sexuality is echoed in the character of Spunky.

Overall Pink proves to be a rather strange mixture! Quirky characters feature in a book that has some vibrant descriptive detail amongst the classic themes of love, time, loss and memory. Combined with entertaining and sometimes even charmingly innocent moments, these factors just aren’t enough to make up for its flaws.

Even a casual glance instantly reveals Van Sants novel to be somewhat less than conventional...this is what attracted me to it in the first place as I flicked through its pages. I bought it with high hopes but unfortunately I was left feeling rather disappointed and certainly not ‘in the pink’.




Published by: Faber and Faber

ISBN: 0-571-19600-4

Cover price: £6.99

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