All right. I somehow managed to put it down. I almost feared that i may drown in that merely conceptual ocean, where they were sailing on a merely conceptual ship, trying to survive and meanwhile defeat a merely conceptual shark in some way. What am i talking about?

I just finished a great book, that instantly managed to get into my top books. As you may guess from my previous mentions of it, the title of this great one’s The Raw Shark Texts and was written by Steven Hall. Simply great, all i can say. When writing about it, i’ll be careful, not to make a grave mistake, such was made by the editor – or whatever – of another book i’ve been reading recently, where on the backside of the book, in the short summary part, it was said that the main character will die in the book, thus instantly killing the excitement. Well, not exactly killing, but almost.

So… what’s evident. There are a couple of characters in the book, some actually present, some only in memories, or better said with the book’s terminology, only conceptually, but still, here the border between concept and reality is so thin that it may be missing actually.

The problem with this book is very much alike to the problem with Foucault’s Pendulum. Both are so much filled with a theory that you don’t even realise that it’s present where maybe even the writer didn’t indend so. In the latter’s case this theory was the most deeply applied semiotics, while in The Raw Shark Texts the theory is of the conceptual entities, not only life forms, but the whole conceptual universe, sometimes so much twisted that it’s easy to get lost – and then you have to read whole chapters over again so that you can be sure that you understand everything right. And even then, you can’t be sure. Not even when you think you can. Oh, too many “even”-s, sorry. Still, i’m still (now a double “still”, jeez, my writing skills are getting worse) not sure what’s the actual end of the book. Though i read that part very carefully, even more carefully than the others… no hope. I think this was intentional from the author.

On the other hand, don’t think that this book is merely deep philosophy, psychology and other comlicated latin-named sciences or things that an outsider could call science, it has loads of fun and laughing packed in it, and sometimes even that thin thread of constant gloom disappears in the sunshine, washed away by the waves of the sea. Not to mention its style is very humane, so easy to read that i read a half of it right now in two hours. And this one wasn’t the lighter half…

There’re also loads and loads of cultural references, which also brought me quite some funny moments. I really want to get that Cthulhu myth, as it’s not the first time i read about it and i also know it’s good, but somehow…

So, whomsoever’s looking for a great “psychothriller”, or just a great book to read, this one’s the best choice i could suggest. For me, at least, it was such a book that i always had the feeling that it was written personally for me. (Now a double “for me”. I’m ashamed.) I could really sink into the world of the book as i really could identify with Eric, i could really understand and empathize with his feelings. That’s it.