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100 Years Of Vicissitude (2012)

by Andrez Bergen(Favorite Author)

3.83 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

John Hunt Publishing

review 1: It’s told by an Australian named Deaps. After taking a bullet to the head he has just been killed. Being dead means wandering an unknown landscape not unlike the world as he knew except the details are a little off. He gets a traveling partner, Kohana, a teen Japanese girl who was born before him. What follows are their encounters on both sides of life and death, this side and the Other Side in cinematic cuts to scenes of “reality on rewind” as they walk through the girl’s life in a time traveling tour of 20th Century Japan. Their tour covers everything from the world wars to post-WW2 Japan to video games to Godzilla. In a quest for the meaning of death, he tours his own life seeking to find out exactly what he is, a ghost or what? With these two the reader goes ... moreon a witty voyage of ideas, history, pop culture, style, characters and scenes that are unforgettable told by a writer of prodigiously creative originality. Ultimately this is an otherworldly love story except it’s too unique to be anything like a love story. This fascinating novel is one of a kind.
review 2: When I first read Andrez Bergen's debut novel earlier this year I was quite excited as I found it to be a great read and I was even more stoked when I discovered that a second novel, One Hundred Years of Vicissitude would be coming out in October and I have been eagerly awaiting it's release since.I certainly have not been disappointed, One Hundred Years is one of the more profound and moving books I have read in a very long time and combined with Mr Bergen's unique writing style this novel is really something special.This novel could be viewed as a historical narrative, a love story or a journey through time and different cultures and is a stand alone novel despite the presence of characters from previous works (although reading his debut novel, Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat may help add some clarity or perspective to the storyline).The two main characters that feature in this novel are well developed and the author uses his unique sense of humour and wit to draw the readers in but it is not in-your-face styled humour, rather a subtle insertion that perfectly adds to the power of the tale being told.The same can be said of Andrez Bergen's influences, he introduces us to numerous movies, books, comics, music and actual historic events and rather than this be overbearing it adds another layer to a novel that is so much better for being multi-layered and faceted.I haven't written many reviews of books I have read before and found it somewhat difficult to write this one, I actually noticed that some of the other people who also have reviewed this novel found themselves in a similar position. This could perhaps be attributed to the fact that One Hundred Years of Vicissitude is the kind of novel that isn't pinned down to any particular genre and the author has taken the reader on a genuine journey with pain, laugh out loud moments, a sense of melancholy, happiness and even moments where I myself found myself getting a bit teary eyed (I cannot recall the last time that happened when I read a book!)Overall I am so pleased that I have discovered this author and read this book, it was a genuine pleasure to read and I am sure to revisit it many times in the future. Would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fantastic book and isn't compelled to read something that is pigeon-holed into a particular genre and is simply happy to be taken on a wonderful ride. less

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