![]() ![]() Everything feels grimy.Įspecially that night: detritus smeared all over, puddles of spilled beer and toppled ashtrays and some crusted cheeselike stain on the shower curtain that even I, drunk as I was (and I was), couldn’t bear to look at.Īnd when Nicholas discovers the hole-the Funhole-as he calls it, Koja crafts the perfect stream-of-consciousness to illustrate its unsettling opaqueness when they try throwing something into it. Published in 1991, the book foreshadows the 90s grunge scene. We’ll revisit the Chandler comparison later. ![]() ![]() I cursed my way into the shower, glad as I drove breakfastless to work beneath trees bare as telephone poles and signs for things I never did or would. This setting proves an ever-present character, like Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles. Think Detroit or somewhere in the Rust Belt. A city big enough to support an underground art scene, sprawling enough for cars, and far enough north that blizzards aren’t uncommon. Bear with me.Īuthor Kathe Koja sets the story in an unnamed American city. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating, often both. Weird things ensue.īut this doesn’t convey a sense of the book’s dichotomy. How to describe The Cipher? The plot concerns Nicholas, an aimless twenty-something drifting through life, who discovers a mysterious hole inside a disused storage room in his derelict apartment building. ![]()
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