luvrdaisy's Full Review: Nicholson Baker - The Mezzanine: A Novel
Nicholas Baker's The Mezzanine is not really a story. There's no plot, or major action, or anything that should make it entertaining. But somehow, it manages to be vastly entertaining, if only because the reader gets caught up in the world that the novel creates.
Throughout our daily lives, we each have perfected our routines. How we brush our teeth, how we brush our hair, how we apply deoderant, and any other number of things are uniquely individual to each of us. Some of these techniques have taken us years to develop, and have taken immense amounts of thought, even if we are not aware of it (or, even if we are embarrassed to admit that it has taken us years to reach a decisive way of brushing our teeth or flossing).
The Mezzanine is about, and only about, these little subconscious developments in our character, and the amount of thought that goes into these things that we are hardly aware of. The only real "action" in The Mezzanine is the escalator ride. The entire novel takes place inside the mind of an office drone as he rides the escalator to his desk, on the mezzanine level of an office building.
At first, he begins pondering his belongings- the stapled bag in one hand, for example. He explores the meaning of stapling a bag when you buy a small purchase, as if the smaller the purchase, the more it has to be hidden from public view. These original thoughts lead him on an often entertaining, yet somewhat long winded stream of consciousness that leads from the stapled bag, to the sound of mailroom equipment, to the shape of the cardboard milk carton, to how to apply deodorant underneath a shirt without getting deodorant everywhere.
It sounds strange, perhaps, but in reading this novel I was shocked at the similarities between the narrator's thought process and my own. Having finished it, I am now much more aware of all the (sometimes crazy and seemingly random) thoughts that pass through my brain. Baker's writing is phenomenal, and not for a moment was I struck with any notion that the narrator's thoughts were stupid or inconsequential. His discovery of "tongue brushing," for example, sparked a sense of recognition in me rather than amusement or disgust.
The Mezzanine will strike a lot of familiar chords with most readers. Humans, by nature, are observant animals, even though we may not know it. But each one of us is capable of having every one of the thoughts in this novel during a single escalator ride. So even though the thought process of this novel seems scattered and strange at first, it is so real and familiar that we wonder if we haven't thought the same thing at one point or another. The discussion of home delivered milk in glass bottles vs. the modern store bought carton milk, for example, is the same sort of thing that countless folks who remember home delivery would have. In fact my grandmother has had the same discussion with me as this man has with himself while on the escalator.
In addition to writing such a "real" novel, Baker organizes it in a unique but entirely logical way. Instead of long parenthetical asides, Baker inserts footnotes. These footnotes are sometimes pages long, but the arrangement of them in this way is not the least bit distracting, as the footnote is more of a parenthetical insertion, and we must go back to where it started to continue in this highly enjoyable stream of consciousness experience.
For those that are highly observant, and notice every little thing, this novel is like looking in a mirror. Baker's ability to capture this streaming thought process on paper is nothing short of remarkable, and serves to remind us of how similar we all are to one another (my guess is that 90% of the people reading this book will recognize at least four or five of his tangents as thoughts they have had in their lifetime). Though it is highly detailed, it is enjoyable to read, and if you happen to read it too fast or miss a detail, there is no detriment (unlike many books where you must re-read things to capture all the details).
This was another of my Bibelot "$10 for a box of books!" buys, but it is available at major bookstores everywhere. It is a quick read, suitable for both "bathroom readers" and those who like to read their books all at once. And though there is no real plot to speak of, the subconscious thoughts of this man do tell quite the life story, in a way that is touching, familiar, and very real.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.