Mobius Dick

’Mobius Dick’ es una novela inclasificable, mezcla de parodia y erudición, donde la mecánica cuántica, la literatura y la historia se dan la mano. Schrödinger, Thomas Mann, E.T.A. Hoffmann, este libro es como un juego de espejos en el que se conjugan varias tramas, una historia con múltiples realidades, donde el lector debe decidir qué es ficción y qué realidad. Si bien las explicaciones y reflexiones que se exponen en el libro sobre física son abundantes, Crumey, físico teórico y matemático, las integra perfectamente en el texto. Ha de quedar claro que, pese a su temática, esta novela no encajaría dentro del género de ciencia ficción. Más bien Crumey utiliza ciertos elementos de éste para elaborar su juego de show more espejos literario, en el que la memoria y el miedo a la pérdida de la identidad son importantes. Lo mejor con esta novela es dejarse llevar y entrar en el juego que te propone el autor. Si bien al principio parecen varias historias independientes, a lo largo de la novela se van soltando pistas para que al final puedas atarlo todo y así sacar tus propias conclusiones.

Con el sentido habitual del escocés Andrew Crumey, ’Mobius Dick’ no deja de ser un juego intelectual con el que pasar el rato. Crumey tiene mejores novelas, véase la genial ‘Pfitz’ o ‘El principio de D’Alembert’. Interesante y poco más. show less

A quick glance at the customer reviews of this book on Amazon shows how widely opinion is divided. One five star review asserts that it is 'original, thought-provoking, erudite … and above all great fun' while the next dismisses it as 'confusing and tedious'. I am not sure whether I agree with neither … or perhaps both.

There can certainly be no question about the thought-provoking. In its three hundred pages this book offers a wide swathe of subjects including theoretical physics with cameo appearances from Schrodinger, psychology and the interpretation of dreams, the travails of nineteenth century novelists with an exchange between Hermann Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the descent into mental disrepair of Robert Schumann, show more all enmeshed with some what-if speculations about the outcome of the last world war and a contemporary physicist's recollections of an old lover. 'What, no ventriloquists? I hear you ask, and that does indeed some to be one of the few fields of artistic endeavour that doesn't rate a mention.

On reflection I feel I did enjoy it. It is not an easy read, but it is rewarding, though I also think that some of the apostrophising was a little over-extended. Hamlet with nothing but the prince, perhaps, and a surfeit of tangential sidebars. show less

Mindbending stuff. I'm not sure I understood everything here. No, let me rephrase that, I am sure I didn’t understand everything here. Parallel realities and alternate histories stirred together by the quantum mechanical effects of an experimental “vacuum array” at a secret test site in Scotland. There are echoes of Calvinoesque metafiction, Dickian reality paranoia, Aldiss’ Frankenstein Unbound, Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently and Mostly Harmless (without the jokes) ... plus a little political satire and sex too.

I picked this book up on a whim as part of a 3 for 2 deal, intrigued by "perhaps the only novel about quantum mechanics you could imagine reading while lying on a beach". Sadly if I'd been reading this on a beach I'd have fallen asleep and either drowned when the tide came in or burnt to a crisp. I found the book tedious and overly confusing. The whole thing is built on alternate world ideas, and the main storyline following a character's investigation of this idea and bouncing between worlds is interesting. However the lengthy sections dedicated to historical scientists, musicians and writers were boring to me, not least because I didn't have the faintest idea most of the time which details were 'true' and which were alternate. Had the show more book focussed more on the central character's storyline and worlds I would probably have enjoyed it a lot more, although I'm still not sure I'd go so far as to recommend it to anyone. As it stands this was a book that sounded intriguing but ended up being pretensious and irritating. show less

Left me wondering what bits were real and which were fiction. A wonderful and complex story by one of the most talented writers I have come across.

Sci-fi that forgets the story.

funny, romantic, enlightening