The story picks up with Steven touring a walled city, following his wife’s itinerary, and then getting locked outside it, away from its crowds, left to find his own way in a “hilly and wholly unremarkable” desert. When he seems to make it back, he can find no trace of his wife—and he’s impressed into employment as a janitor. Then kidnapped, offered a promotion, given a new life in Kathmandu—and then Ourman ventures proudly beyond the summarizable.
And so it goes, the tale moves in quizzical spurts, with Steven vanishing—or does he?—from a narrative that rewards readers who labor to invest in its mysteries, its lengthy dialogues and poetic sprees, its sharp questions and shifts of perspective, and its introduction of a family who has always been “ready to assist Ourman in whatever form history has given him.” Uth’s world is abstract, at times to the point of vagueness, and the pleasures of the story don’t always measure up to the challenge of reading it. Still, the themes of cycles and some of the best moments—like one character’s definition of a cult—will rattle in the heads of the dedicated long after they finish.
Takeaway: This prankish, defiantly tricky novel interrogates the concept of the hero’s journey.
Great for fans of: B.S. Johnson’s Albert Angelo, Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+
