I was absolutely stunned by this book! An amazing discovery! One of my favourites this fall, and definitely one that will remain on my all-time top list.
Benny is a lovely boy, very fond of his parents. Unfortunately, his dad Kenny Oh (or Kenji because of his korean-japanese roots) dies on his way home from a gig with his band. He’s a jazz musician and often high. He’s married to Annabelle, a blond shy girl who admired him since he joined the band of her ex-boyfriend.
This accident changes their lives totally. Benny starts to hear voices from things surrounding him. Not words, rather emotions….A window glass who is sad because a little bird dies crashing into it. And scissors who are mad with rage against the teacher. Benny tries to gain control over them, wearing earphones and telling them to shut up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Annabelle deals with the pain by gaining weight and hoarding things. She as well tries to keep it under control, but eventually loses against her sad feelings. The sunny yellow tea pot who reminds her of the songs she used to sing to her baby just lands in her cart by itself. Finally Benny is put in a psychiatric ward. The scissors were a threat and he couldn’t protect his teacher so he directed their anger at himself. His psychotherapist puts him on medication, but she can’t define his exact needs and so he gets antidepressiva, ritalin, the whole range with no effect except making him so tired that he can’t go to school anymore. He starts to hide in the Public Library faking dispenses with an false e-mail account he created in his mothers name. At the library he discovers certain messages from a girl he met on the ward. She calls herself “the Aleph” an artists name given to her by Slavoj, an marxist poet in a wheelchair. They sort of live together with a group of anarchists and Benny joins them. He falls in love with Alice (aka the Aleph). During his daily visits to the Library during summer holidays he hears the voice of the Book. The one who was meant for him. His very own book. Telling him his story. It has a very specific voice. At the Bindery - no longer in use - but a place with strong parapsychological phenomenons - he discovers what the Book wants and how it’ll help him save himself. Annabelle gets help from another book, called Tidy Magic. It practically launches itself into her cart and appears in mysterious ways whenever Annabelle summons up her willpower to make a change and get rid of her clutter.
Of course I could go on and on. This book really called out to me as well. It seemed we were meant to find eachother. You’ve had this impression, before, as well, right? That you pick a book and it’s just the one you were waiting for. That’s how it was with this one, for me.
