Name: Dark Neighbourhood
ISBN: 9781913097707

Vanessa Onwuemezi

Dark Neighbourhood

Ryan Nylander

Mysterious and ambiguous. This sort of heady poetic prose makes me question whether I am some kind of philistine for not appreciating it more (if the shoe fits, perhaps I should wear it). My attempts to puzzle out its secrets, or even just to follow its narrative, felt more or less futile. Maybe what I really wanted to read was a more straightforward novel, still, I did try to like this.

Dark Neighborhood is not the first book of its kind (file under "experimental literature," perhaps) that I've attempted. I had similar difficulty with Blood Meridian, but I remember enjoying Autobiography of Red. Perhaps it comes down to whether the reader is in the right headspace to be receptive to these surreal vignettes.