American Abductions

A challenging read, that's the first thing to say. Split into short chapters, each of which runs to one sentence (though I would go so far as to say that this is cheating on the part of the author, as there is no reason for each chapter to run on like this - the chapters are not one sentence at all, structurally and grammatically, but presented as one sentence for reasons I can think are more to do with style and impact than any other kind of logic), it would be a mistake of the reader to think they can come into this work and find the story wrapped neatly up with a little bow. There is an abduction of sorts - the deportation to Columbia of a Latin American citizen of the USA - and there are little pieces here and there that offer show more something to hold onto as you tumble into the author's dizzying version of reality... but when I reached the book and read the concluding sentence/chapter, the thought struck me - the chapters of this book could have been presented in almost any order and it might not have changed the outcome... show less

“just as it made no sense to anyone but her to laugh at some of the videos her video had spawned for instance the video of her video but with sappy music instead of her sister politely asking the abductors where were they taking her father as if someone figured hey no one’s going to feel sorry enough for you people let me add sad violin music to the video of your father saying I’ve done nothing wrong, officer, or how about the video from a self-proclaimed irreverent news organization from China that, via computer animation as if from an obsolete video game, replicated the trajectory from her house to the sensitive location as if it were a car chase, the abductors rushing to drag her father out of the car as if it were a drug bust, show more the video game representation of Ada recording her father’s capture with her phone from the backseat of the car, waterfalls of tears surging from her eyes, no not waterfalls, more like some’s comical representation of lawn sprinklers superimposed on the eyes of the video game representation of me” show less