With great sadness, I say that I was not a fan of the Mezzanine. I constantly felt trapped, not just inside of Howie's head, but in the structure of NYC life itself as well as the corporate American expectation.
I understand that the whole point of the book is to span the lunch hour, use the vehicle of the escalator ride to the Mezzanine as a beginning and end - however, it is inefficient to me to constrict yourself to a mere hour. I'm very picky about books, have been my entire life, so when I sit down with something it often results in putting the book down fairly quickly. It was a huge struggle not to give up after the first twenty pages... Because there was never a real moment when Baker allowed Howie's thoughts to lapse and pull the magnified glass away from his eye, the reader is forced into a monotonous and exhausting analysis of everything. I wish that there had been a broader timeframe, one that allowed similar attention to detail but also space for the reader to breathe just a bit.
I still struggle to realize the value in the book without much character development. I guess that I went into it with the wrong expectations, one that it would be a plot heavy book, like most I have read for a Mitchell class. While I was not especially into the book, there were moments where I really appreciated it. Howie gave us a unique perspective on the things that we often turn our cheek to multiple times a day, things we interact with but don't necessarily notice. In small doses it was interesting to delve into the swoops and corners of the most iconic designs. I also appreciate the cultural time-capsule that this novel presents itself as - it preserves the ideas, designs, and drama lost in the 20th century. I appreciate the craftsmanship, the language, the attention, but not the style or development.
I had some similar feelings about the book. I thought that there were parts that were very interesting. I think that the idea of looking closer at one lunch period is a good idea and I think that it opened my eyes to lots of small details that Howie shows us throughout the book. At the same time, I sometimes felt trapped into Howie's head when I didn't want to be. Sometimes the extreme emotional reaction that Howie had were alienating if he was thinking about something that didn't really matter to me. At these times I found that the close detail trapped me into reading on and on about section that I had less interest in without providing any forward momentum.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I disagree. To me, if Baker had given himself the limit of an entire day, it would've ruined the point. Within 24 hours there are, well 24 times more opportunities for delving further into a topic, but the entire point of "The Mezzanine" is that you can have this elaborate analysis of a seemingly boring hour in a normal work day.
ReplyDeleteIt was also hard for me to read the mezzanine, I shared that feeling of being trapped in his head with no way out. the tough part for me was that there was never a break from his ramblings and thoughts, so I never had time to think about or reflect on them, instead he just kept digressing further and further away from each point he made. Though it was hard, I have never read anything like it and it was kinda fun at times when he made the most mundane objects (a stapler for instance) seem interesting and have it's own story.
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