chase's book of excuses

I took a break from my other reading to join a group of friends in reading Gould's Book of Fish. There's no way I would ever have run across this novel if the group hadn't recommended it, which makes this more fun than the other 3 things I'm reading now, in that it's a total surprise. It also managed to be completely unexpected, even after reading the synopsis and reviews. Despite the ongoing metanarrative (a man who makes fake antiques finds a book that proves to be a hoax about an imprisoned forger who becomes not only a fish but also most of the characters he invents, including the man who finds his book), I feel like I learned plenty about a time and place I knew so little about, a 19th century Australia which the British are attempting to reform. The perspective of this culture and it's history combines with endless meditations of the creative process in a novel that proved to be a damned quick read.

Now back to Don Quixote.