Love and Death

[Brian Collins]

> Another book I picked but haven't finished is _Love and Sleep_ by John 
> Crowley.  A character named Pierce fancies himself a member (from birth) 
> of an invisible secret society interested in alchemy and twisting history

> 
> Richard Romeo
> 
Although it doesn't appear to say so, L & S is a sequel to 'Aegypt', which
is that very rare thing a fantasy novel that works. The conceit is that the
pre-copernican cosmology of crystal spheres inhabited by ranks of angels
was literally true, but not any more . . . L & S was supposed to resolve
all this but as you say it's very disappointing. Crowley's other books I
have found pretty unreadable. 

On Perec's 'W' it certainly contains all the vowels, but it is dedicated to
'E'. The translator points out that 'W' in French is 'double-ve'. If I say
it's a complex narative about a search for someone or somewhere called 'W'
and a wartime childhood, or actually about the way reality is transformed
into fantasy/fiction you'll see that it's of some interest to readers of
Pynchon. And it's short.

  - Brian Collins