emfiliane reviewed Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Review of 'Night Film' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Night Film is one of the greatest books I've read in years, despite its length and its eccentric pacing. At its heart, this is a story about stories, centering around a man so reclusive that he's become a legend. If Kubrick had become a master of torture cinema, this may have been his story. Pessl has created a world that's one foot inside of ours, one far outside, bringing a sense of wonder to our daily, ordinary life. You may think you know that the magical or the mundane is true, the murder or the myth, but you'll be in for many twists, and in the end... you take as much magic as you can believe in.
If nothing else, the poetic imagery throughout the book took my breath away. Pessl's skill at writing turns even the prosaic moments into a singular work of art that you want to hold …
Night Film is one of the greatest books I've read in years, despite its length and its eccentric pacing. At its heart, this is a story about stories, centering around a man so reclusive that he's become a legend. If Kubrick had become a master of torture cinema, this may have been his story. Pessl has created a world that's one foot inside of ours, one far outside, bringing a sense of wonder to our daily, ordinary life. You may think you know that the magical or the mundane is true, the murder or the myth, but you'll be in for many twists, and in the end... you take as much magic as you can believe in.
If nothing else, the poetic imagery throughout the book took my breath away. Pessl's skill at writing turns even the prosaic moments into a singular work of art that you want to hold on to forever. I'd have highlighted half the book if I'd tried to capture every unexpected turn of phrase.
In some ways, it's almost a frame story, a launching pad for the other tales told over many chapters throughout. You aren't just reading one book, you're reading many, and it's important to suspend your disbelief about how much people will say, to truly explore this familiar yet strange world. But it's not just that, because McGrath has a long personal quest to connect the many stories with his own experiences. McGrath's story is going on at the same time that he encounters other stories; to a lesser degree, so are his two cohorts'. I was never sure if the book was more about McGrath or Cordova, but despite one's complete absence, it is absolutely about both. The predator/prey relationship is starkly highlighted later on, with multiple reversals until an unexpected finale. The idea of lives' threads coming strongly together in distress and slowly unraveling afterward speaks to me strongly.
There are many unreliable narrators in this story, that come together to form a compelling yet imperfect narrative, and the greatest strength of the book is that you and I get to decide what was and wasn't true, how much myth bled over into reality, and more than anything, to know that the story of Stanislaw Cordova could easily have been a part of our lives.
I have so many thoughts on this book, I'm pretty sure I'll be rewriting this review a few times.
