Review: Revenge of the Grand Narrative

Title: Revenge of the Grand Narrative

Author: Richard Rosenbaum

Publisher: Quattro Books

Publication Date: 2014

ISBN: 9781927443712

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The oldest man in the world, an activist with a suspiciously persuasive singing voice, and the author of the most anticipated debut novel ever…are three different people. Together they set out to investigate a mysteriously sychronistic earthquake that seems to have leapt from the world of fiction.

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Revenge of the Grand Narrative is a novel that brought a smile to my face in a way that no book has done since the metafiction class that I took in university. The extent to which this novel is aware of itself as a fiction is amusing and absurd to say the least. This book has a whole section in it’s second half that walks the reader through parts of the stories development and the author’s thoughts and notes on the writing. The author/speaker identifies the story as a work of fiction, commenting on the style, the thought behind it, even to the point of conversing with one of the story’s characters directly.

The more “traditional” narrative is an absurd story of a city struck suddenly and unusually by earthquakes, accompanied by the landing of a wooden, naturally grown, robot-esque, fire-spurting being. It’s left to our three main characters–a famous author, a Kantian deontologist, and an idealogical utilitarian– all of whom are opinionated and act exactly how you’d expect, to save the day. We don’t really get any sort of conclusion. Each character finishes the story trapped inside the Generic House of Worship, a structure that isn’t really quite sure what it is. The writer, that is the speaker, returns to these scenes to walk us through his thoughts behind each character and each situation.

Rosenbaum has fun with his writing here. His statements are often intentionally obvious or ridiculously absurd, and it’s hilarious. He kept bringing a smirk to my face. The ending especially gave me a good chuckle. It’s a really unique story, and a light hearted read.