oceane's voyage (Voyage to the End of the Room - Tibor Fischer)

Member Name: melee679

Product:	Voyage to the End of the Room - Tibor Fischer
Date:	28/01/05 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well written, dry humour

Disadvantages: patchy

I can't remember how this book ended up on my wish list, I must have read a favourable review of it somewhere or other. But after languishing on the wish list for a while, it ended up in a Waterstone's bag and then keeping me company on the train for a few days.
Now, I'll start by saying, I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or not. The story line is certainly unique, and the body of the text is well written, with patches of pleasantly dark humour, although it can be confusing at times (and not intentionally, I don't think).

Our narrator is Oceane - one time sex performer now living the life of a recluse in London. She's financially solvent thanks to a spot of graphic design that keeps rolling in the royalties, and it's a good job too, as she doesn't venture outside her building now for anything. The traveller in her still wants to explore, and so she buys the outside world in with the help of a novel travel agent who sets up new cities and countries in the second flat she owns in the building. Strange? Yes, just a bit, but then Oceane is an odd lady (and a little bit annoying too, if truth be told).

The next big character is Audley - a debt collector who seems to inspire something in Oceane with his equally odd approach to life - and she ends up employing him to track down the source of the letters she keeps getting from her dead boyfriend.
Filling in all the gaps between this part of the story are rembrances from Barcelona, and that sex-performer life that probably got your attention in my first description of our heroine. Fischer weaves in some amusing anecdotes here, but the people seem a little stiff, and the story, although funny in its constituent parts, seems to lack something as a whole. Certainly there is nothing very realistic about the sequence of events. The dead boyfriend is supposed to be explained here, but somehow he never is, and so when Audley goes out into the world connected up as Oceane's eyes and ears, it isn't really clear what she is looking for, or realistically expecting to find. What I did enjoy here was that Fischer doesn't spell out what's happening, but you get to slowly realise what's going on in your own sweet time.

All said, sometimes it doesn't matter that the plot of a book doesn't make much sense. Fischer offers us fistfuls of witty, wry observations, and those are worth the read in themselves. There are nuggets of philosophy lurking in there too if you look carefully (almost akin to my beloved Kundera). I'm loathe to say it's her voyage of self discovery, but ultimately I suppose it is. With alot of nudity and some butter-phobias thrown in along the way for good measure. But maybe the overall concept was just a little too clever to be executed smoothly. The narrative is jerky and convoluted, Oceane's actions are not terribly understandable, and ultimately the end of the book leaves you disappointed. Still recommended though, for the humour and the sections of brilliant prose. And the undoubtedly novel idea.

Summary: