Girls, Could This Be The Book Of The Year?????????????????????

                                         
                                              Imagine, darlings, those black-and-white, Gothic looking, opening and closing shots of "Citizen Kane," expanded to full length, and then reconstructed as a horror film.  That is what it  is like, visually and verbally, reading Marisha Pessl's new novel, "Night Film," her first since the wildly successful "Special Topics In Calamity Physics," which introduced her to us literati, back in 2006.  Authors of second novels often suffer from "sophomore slump," (like Zadie Smith, though her breakthrough book, "White Teeth," was largely forgettable; she did not hit her stride till "On Beauty," and even Donna Tartt!!!!!!!) so, why should Miss Pessl be any different?????  Well she is; in fact, she goes herself even one better.  Premature statements are often rash, but, then I was a premature baby, and we preemies often do not hesitate to throw caution to the wind.  So, I will do so, by uttering the following declaration--

                                              Marisha Pessl's "Night Film" is the "Citizen Kane" of post modern literature!  Like the Welles film, it examines a renowned public figure, and the people and places surrounding him.  Its trappings are dark and Gothic, with sexual aberrations, the occult, and trappings of "Rebecca" thrown in.  And, like Susan Alexander in 'Kane', Ashley Cordova (the filmmaker's daughter) here is the story's most fascinating and enigmatic character.  It is the search for truth regarding Ashley that forms the narrative structure of Pessl's story.

                                               Years from now, when this book has been remaindered, and all but forgotten, except by literary purists like myself, who will hunt for used copies at The Strand, (if that still exists!!!) the New York Review Books Classics will rediscover it, reprint it, and the sensation will be repeated all over again--like a film loop! That is the highest praise I can offer this book.

                                                 I can hear some of  you girls saying, "But, you haven't really told us what the book is about."  The answer is simple, darlings--I can't.  To do so would rob you of the pleasure of reading and discovering the novel's virtues and excesses for yourselves.  I can tell you that "Night Film" is a terrifying, intellectually stimulating journey into the dark, psychological Hell of the human mind.  And just as Cordova's films will play  tricks on the viewer, so Pessl's book does on the reader.  The reader, in effect, is being tortured, like the Cordovites in the story.  And I loved every minute of it!

                                                   In any other year, "Night Film" would indisputably get my vote for Book Of The Year.  It may still win, but there is the matter of that recently published Donna Tartt novel, to be read.  As soon as that is done, darlings, I will make my decision, and let you know. Because it definitely comes down to either of these two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   "Night Film" is not for the faint of heart.  There are some among my acquaintance--including my beloved!!!!--whom I would advise not to read it. I can tell you that the ending is rather Wellesian, reminiscent of a once proposed project of his--a film version of Joseph Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness."  Which should give one a general idea of the book's overall sensibility.  It is the darkest, most brilliant book I have read this year--to date!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    Whether it remains so, only time will tell!

                                                    Readers, enter at your own risk!!!!!!!!!!  For the ride of your lives!!!!!!!!!!!