It's hard to say what 10:04 is about, even harder to say what the title means. The book has a plot of sorts, but it approaches its true subject obliquely, like The Rings of Saturn. I'd say it's about the interplay between art, memory, and personal identity. Sounds pretentious, no? I suppose it is, but it kept my mind buzzing as I read it.
The book is filled with subsidiary stories in which characters find the world rearranging itself around them. A woman becomes an Arab-American activist to honor her Lebanese father, only to learn that he isn't her real father; the narrator was motivated to become a writer by seeing the Challenger explosion live, but realizes he couldn't have; a man supports his girlfriend through her cancer treatments until she admits to never having cancer at all. Our personal identity derives from stories we tell ourselves about our past, which are just as constructed as any other art.
For me, the first two-thirds of 10:04 were a full five-star affair. The final sections, starting with the narrator's visit to Marfa, weren't bad but they lacked the flair of the earlier sections.
The book is filled with subsidiary stories in which characters find the world rearranging itself around them. A woman becomes an Arab-American activist to honor her Lebanese father, only to learn that he isn't her real father; the narrator was motivated to become a writer by seeing the Challenger explosion live, but realizes he couldn't have; a man supports his girlfriend through her cancer treatments until she admits to never having cancer at all. Our personal identity derives from stories we tell ourselves about our past, which are just as constructed as any other art.
For me, the first two-thirds of 10:04 were a full five-star affair. The final sections, starting with the narrator's visit to Marfa, weren't bad but they lacked the flair of the earlier sections.
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