253: The Print Remix, Geoff Ryman, St. Martin's Griffin, 1998
A London subway train consists of seven cars, with 36 seats each. If all seats are filled, with nobody standing, then each train holds 253 people (including the driver). This novel profiles the occupants of one such train during an average journey between two stops (approximately a seven-minute trip). Each description is a mini short story, and looks at what the person is wearing, and what they're thinking or feeling during the trip, and each story consists of exactly 253 words. Along with some helpful advertisements interspersed throughout, that's the book.
This is quite unlike any story I have ever read. In a way, it's very user friendly, because there's no having to remember what happened 50 or 100 pages ago. The reader can pick and choose which parts to read. For those looking for something completely different in their reading, check this out.
No comments:
Post a Comment