Border Districts

By Gerard Murnane
Published 2018
GoodReads rating: 3.65 out of 5
GL rating: 9 out of 10
(Comments originally posted on FB July 9, 2018)

This was an extraordinary novel. The dust jacket described the author, Gerard Murnane, as a perennial Nobel candidate, and I can see why.

It’s not just that it’s a ravishing novel, it’s a novel that manages to be ravishing despite the absence of a plot, conflict, love triangle, character development, or car crashes. It has sort of forced me to rethink what a great novel should look like.

It reminded me a bit of Austerlitz in terms of its tone (old man looking back on his life) bit they are very different novels.

It’s the kind of novel that looks like it would be fairly easy to pull off, but I also had the sense that to really get all that it has to offer you’d have to read it three times.

I recommend it highly, and I can share that I finished reading it standing on the corner of 13th street and broadway avenue while waiting to see a mediocre action movie.

I can also share that Border Lands is only 130 pages, which is nice.