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260 pages, ebook
First published May 25, 1981
It scared me to know there was this dichotomy in the perceived world, as if to stop believing it could cause the ship to vanish beneath me.And what of those islands...
To her, each island represented a different facet of her personality, each one vested in her a sense of identity. She was incomplete without islands, she was spread across the sea.*While Priest's prose is measured鈥攕ome may even say restrained鈥攖he pacing and depth of the story fully earn these terms.
The Affirmation by Christopher Priest is one of the greatest books I've ever read. I read this book a couple of days ago but hadn't been able to write a review because I was unable to think straight. This book has seriously messed with my mind.
I have never been a huge fan of simple and straightforward plots. Most of my favourite movies are filled with twisted, complicated plotlines and confusing narratives but it's a bit easier to create such effects on screen where you have a variety of tools available. But to do that using written words is a much more difficult task but Christopher Priest does this exceptionally and the result is nothing short of mind-bending.
The following quote captures the essence of this extraordinary book better than anything else ever could -
"From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality."
- Ernest Hemingway
If you've read this book you'd truly understand and appreciate how apt this quote is for this particular book.
The story is told in first person and in the very early parts of the book, Peter Sinclair establishes himself as a somewhat unreliable narrator. Whether this is because of two (or three?) worlds colliding and merging into each other or because of the state of his mind is unclear.
The story begins with Peter telling us that "Already there is an uncertainty, and my sureness recedes." And he's not lying.
Peter is twenty-nine years old (or is he?) and has recently lost his father, his job, his apartment and his girlfriend (they broke up). All this happen in a matter of weeks, crushing and destroying him.
Most people experience these unfortunate events in their lives but to go through them all at the same time must truly be devastating.
In his intentions of finding himself and finding some meaning to his life, he decides to write an autobiography which only leads to more uncertainty and confusion. The narration is somewhat flat but that only helps the book in later parts. The prose is written in a way that you believe what is being said and this makes it even more baffling when things are questioned or disproved.
The characters are extremely well created and realistic. Even the characters who might or might not be real are as well rounded as the other ones.
The best part about the characters is probably the fact that every character has a personality which makes them unique as they express different emotions and exhibit different sides of themselves.
But the narrator is not without bias towards the characters and that bias usually draws you in as the biases become your own.
Before you know, it's not only Peter who distrusts the other characters, it's you who distrust them. This doesn't stop the characters from coming across to you, making you believe things and question them at the same time.
This is probably the most complex part of the book. There are more than a singular world and both of them appear to be equally real. But are they? We might never truly know. There is an alternate reality set inside the reality we know to be true.
One of the worlds is the world with which we're quite familiar - London.
The other world is a fascinating, dream-like world aptly named as Dream Archipelago, a seemingly endless number of islands, full of endless possibilities.
Both of these worlds are described in flat, matter-of-fact manner, making you believe in both of them and the yet reader ends up questioning the existence of both of them.
Some sci-fi novels are filled with aliens, high-tech weapons, time travel and such. The Affirmation, however, deals with much grandeur things. It poses questions about (but not limited to) the reliability of one's memory, the meaning of life, and the morality of immortality.
Would you want to be immortal if you could, knowing that everyone you love will die and you will be forever alone? Is there any meaning to such a life? Do you deserve to be immortal? Would you do something worthwhile with your never-ending life or would it be just a waste?
Let's talk about something a lot more personal. Something that you always rely on and consider the utmost truth - Memory
How reliable is your own memory? Do you remember the things which happened in your childhood? We always seem so sure about the things we witnessed or experienced when we were children. We never question them, do we? And yet there are moments when you're talking to your parents or elders and they give you a somewhat different account of the events. Does that mean that you made things up? Our memories are a part of us. They are what shapes us and define us. But it's also true that the memories depend on your perception of the events and your senses which might be affected by a number of reasons.
If the things you remember from your childhood are flawed, what's to say that everything else isn't? What's to say that everything else you remember is correct? How do you even know who you really are?
These are only a few of the questions this remarkable book made me ask and to say that I can never see my life in the same way will be a massive understatement.
Nothing is certain. Half your life could be a figment of your imagination for all you know. Memory is unreliable and so are the people you remember.
While writing this entire review, I couldn't help but think of Solipsism.
But what of your own mind? Is the knowledge we have of our own lives reliable? Can it be trusted?
Note: This book is not for people who like their books to be simple. Despite not being long, this won't be a quick read because the ideas are simply too big.
"Memory is continuity too, a sense of identity and place and consequence. I am what I am because I can remember how I became it."p144