Readers should begin with the memoir: It is both better and makes better sense of the fictional part ... Both sections play with form, both are filled with philosophical reflections, both resist linear narrative as they explore our messy desires, compulsions and repetitions ... Apt ... For all its delightful circularity, The Möbius Book does approach a terminus of sorts.
The Möbius Book does not reject the idea of fiction so much as demonstrate how fiction and nonfiction are in constant dialogue, how each is never entirely what it says it is. Just as distorted echoes of the memoir can be found in the fictional half—the seeping blood from next door; the accidental drowning of the young couple—so the scenes that are ostensibly true must be fiction to an extent, the curated memories of a subjective narrator ... It is equally a moving documentary of personal loss, a meditation on the fragility of identity and a critique of the struggle women still face in being heard.
Enticing and frustrating ... I read the novella first and found it occasionally over the top but largely exhilarating in its meticulous construction and literary flamboyance. Turning to the memoir and experiencing much of the same material in brief sections of rambling reflection was a bit of a letdown. Lacey’s account of her religious childhood and the impact of its loss is compelling and moving ... A book that conjoins fiction and memoir to tell different versions of the same story is one way to punk the punking and eschew an ending. But ultimately, its fiction still wins.
