Experiencing Spaces In a recent interview Loewinsohn explains that he wrote the novel in basically six weeks! but when I think about how I read this amazing enthralling mysterious novel in practically one fevered gulp I'm not surprised. I can't wait to read it again. Divided into three sections MF begins with a burglar's experiences of being in the homes spaces of complete strangers and what he imagines their lives are like. The second section is from the perspective of the owner of the last house the burglar is breaking into. They briefly interact in a very odd and funny scene. The second character turns out to be a sort of sound artist who takes his family to spend the summer on the Hudson in a sublet. There while working on a sound sculpture called Magnetic Field he begins to think about the family that lived in the house he's subletting. In the final section he finds out that his collaborator on MF has been having an affair and he's shocked that he'd had no idea and begins imagining how the affair had developed. All along there are phrases that repeat though in entirely different contexts. Very unsettling yet hypnotic. This truly felt like more than just a book in my hands but a wholly successful work of art that in addressing the idea of space whether physical or personal and how we experience it completely altered my own experience of space. It was like taking a drug. Which maybe is why I can't wait to reread it.
Well if you like boring uninspired characters I have to wonder if all of the reviews were written by the author's friends because this book was nothing like they made it sound. I have read hundreds of fiction books in my life and I always have something good to say about them but with this book I felt cheated out of five to six hours of my life that I will never get back.The book starts out interesting enough to keep you reading albeit at a slow pace but the book quickly decelerates to mediocrity. At times I forgot I was reading fiction rather than snippets out of the lives of average boring people whose character development was nonexistent. I kept reading because I expected some ending that would tie everything together unfortunately that was not the case. Occasionally you see a connection between material items in the characters' lives which is the essence of the story.
Beautiful and hypnotic skreetkleener is 100% correct and I couldn't describe this book any better. It's the best I've read in the past year and one of my favorites of all time. Experimental but not pompously so. It's both enjoyable and intellectual.
One Book To Save Recently there was a project called The Big Read at the libraryand it posed a question inspired by the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit451 if you had to save one book from oblivion what would it be?I chose Ron Loewinsohn's Magnetic Fields. This novel is structured like a symphony in 3 movements. As thestories unfold they interweave just as a theme will reappear throughouta piece of music. This is just one of the beauties of this novel.The language is simple and clear yet poetic and evocative. Thecharacters are richly developed and you really get into their headsfeeling their anxiety as if it was your own. The images thatLoewinsohn creates will stay with you hauntingly. I've always had recurring dreams of apartments I've lived in andafter reading Magnetic Fields I have an idea why. The spaces welive in visit imagine all become a part of us and determine muchabout our character. You will never forget this marvelous novel.
the best book i've read I try not to go into titannic size book stores anymore. but i did a year or so agomy eyes were flirting with the spines and covers some with familiar names some unknown. i usually pick something up that looks interestingbut magnetic fields picked me. it was on the bottom shelf to the left. and i thought to myself you have to read this book. And i did. Magnetic Fields is the craft at its best. As well as throwing boomerangs around what people think creative writing is.
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