Glimpses by Lewis Shiner

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Lewis Shiner's Glimpses.

The Short of It

Plot: There are so many songs that could have been, music that we almost heard. What if we could get those lost songs, those forgotten albums, the greatest hits of an alternate history?

Page Count: 343

Award: 1994 World Fantasy Award

Worth a read: No...ish.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Hot damn.

Review: An odd mix. Bits of time travel and parallel universes, used to pepper a story about two things: a love of music and the difficulty in coping with loss. It's a brutal read and often extremely slow. Characters are frequently terrible, self-destructive, and generally difficult to get along with. Every part of this is too long: the musical sections are only impactful if you're interested in that specifically, the relationship and personal drama drags as well. Yet there are... glimpses... of something much better here. Extremely evocative writing and hard hitting scenes, real emotions coming through. These are just padded out by far too much extra everything.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

The heart of Glimpses is Shiner's (and by extension, our protagonist's) love of music. Music permeates every dramatic beat, underscores tensions, and drives the action. It is a somewhat contagious love: there is enough spilling out that it is hard not to absorb some as a reader. Yet it is equally difficult to feel like one has engaged with the text in the same way that Shiner intended if one does not truly share that passion. It's like going to an event to support a friend: it's great seeing how much it means to someone else, but... it's impossible to truly absorb that fervor.

Well, I'm of the wrong generation to be fully tapped into the music scene in question. I know the names, I know the songs, but the bands in question had no significant impact on my life, development, or understanding of the world. Without this critical element it often falls flat. Shiner assumes the reader has both a level of knowledge and a preexisting emotional connection to different singers and thus spends insufficient time actually establishing them as characters in their own right. When this was published, perhaps this made sense: plenty of books start with the premise of saving historical figures from tragedy without exploring more thoroughly why that would be good. We just go along with, "Yes, the assassination of JFK was a tragedy, and therefore traveling back to fix it makes sense." Perhaps reading this book when it was published would feel the same: it is only natural that these are wrongs that must be righted. This would be the equivalent of writing a novel in order to release the Snyder Cut of Justice League.

All that said, Shiner's writing is often extremely evocative. His depictions of a failing relationship hit hard: focusing on the quiet decay of all things, happiness giving way to a tolerable coexistence, until finally someone has had enough. He shows people growing apart without relying on screaming and fighting and drama, without hamming it up for the sake of tension. In real life very few people end their relationships by flinging things at one another and breaking windows. They simply realize, at some point, that they are no longer a good fit. The way in which Ray's relationship with his father is explored is equally weighty and similarly poignant. You can feel Ray's frustration as he tries to grapple with the fact that he both loved and despised his old man.

“So this one time he was working down south of Austin, and he came through and gave me a ride up to Dallas. He said something snotty about some supposed friend of his, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I said, ‘You don’t like anybody, do you?’ I don’t think he said two words on the rest of the trip. And a few weeks later my mother asked me how I could say such a horrible thing to him, how I could tell him he was a bitter, lonely old man without a friend in the world, that nobody gave a damn for him. So despite their telling me all my life how important honesty is, I ended up apologizing to him for something I never said.” 

“It was true, though, wasn’t it?” 

“That nobody liked him? No, lots of people liked him. Loved him even. But none of them were good enough for him.”

Which is to say, to circle back to some standard categorization, that the character work is exceptional. The writing brings these people to life and gives them profound emotional complexity. They struggle far more with themselves than each other - which is much closer to reality.

Plotting and world building are not up to the same standards. But perhaps this indicates that those questions do not quite apply here. Judging a character study on its world is like judging an airport for its food: sure, one can make the call, but that's not really why you're there. That does not, however, excuse the tedium of the plot. In order to deal with multiple musicians things are extremely repetitive. Ray must go through the same steps each time and we follow unwillingly along. There's no easy fix here - Ray needs to have a full journey to come out on the other side. It would just be nice if it was more enjoyable to go along with him.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

“If you get back on that A train, you’ll go right downtown. Everything will be fine.” 

“Okay,” I said. I still felt empty. It wasn’t hunger, it was something else. “Listen, can I come by the studio tomorrow? Hear some of what you’re doing?” 

Jimi’s face was full of pain and sorrow. I didn’t understand it, but I knew it meant no. I felt like he wanted to say goodbye. 

There was no traffic on 125th Street except one white panel truck, roaring toward us much too fast. Jimi shook my hand and turned to cross the street. 

I saw what was about to happen. “Jimi!” I yelled. “Look out!” 

He turned to face me. The truck was still coming. He looked at me sadly and said, “Ray. I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die.” 

And then he turned and stepped out into the street in front of the truck.

One of the things that makes this book so hard to read is that it is relentlessly and unforgivingly bleak. There are no winners except for fate. Even when Ray gets out ahead it is dubious: He finds new love while still married, and the woman he loves is in a relationship. He succeeds at saving someone from one catastrophe, but it only briefly postpones their demise. He finds a new passion and loses his wife. At some point it would just be nice if he could have an unadulterated win. But that would be a different book, it seems.

Perhaps if I was more invested in the music aspects of Glimpses, Ray's successfully drawing out all of these lost songs would be more powerful as victories. It is clear that they are victories within this world, but that is simply not enough to provide momentum for everything else. It does not sufficiently balance out the tragedy and melodrama. Note: not all books need to be rainbows and sunshine, that's not the point. More that it leads to a disconnect between the emotional responses of characters and the reader to different scenarios, which makes it harder to follow along on the characters journey.

For whoever is sticking around this far - I started a new job around six weeks ago, and I think I've finally learned the ropes enough to get back into the swing of these reviews. Thanks for being around! I appreciate it a whole lot.

What would you rescue from the past, Stranger?

And don't forget to read a book!