Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
Author: Richard FariñaRating: 3/5 Stars
Reviewer: Lydia
Richard Fariña’s book was a hidden surprise for me; I’ve never heard of him before, but his quirky style is very reminiscent of such authors as Thomas Pynchon or David Foster Wallace. Set in the Beat era, this short book follows the adventures of Gnossos Pappadopoulis as he rambles, meanders, and gallivants through his college years and life in general. There are encounters with bears, a run-in with a fraternity, and did I mention lots of aimless meandering?
Fariña’s style, like Pynchon’s or Foster Wallace’s, is not for everyone. Sentences begin and then end three lines later without much regard for punctuation, obscure references are made regarding everything from art to history to religion, the reader rarely knows who is speaking, and in actuality, there is no real plot line. In the end, as much as I enjoyed the strangeness and humor of this novel, Fariña’s style sometimes becomes overwrought and tiresome.
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