One old copy of the novel Rebellion sits in Lena Knecht's tote bag, about to accompany her on a journey from New York to Berlin in search of a clue to the hand-drawn map on its last page. It is the voice of this novel—a first edition nearly burned by Nazis in May 1933—that is our narrator.
Stories expertly dovetail or run parallel ... So many narrative voices jostling for attention could have proved shrill and disorienting. In fact, their differing tones and textures imbue the proceedings with variety and complexity. This multifaceted novel about belonging, oppression and the enduring power of storytelling is brilliantly ingenious and utterly absorbing.
Ingenious and engaging ... Every time [Rebellion], this character, in tones both self-deprecating and wise, lets us know what it sees and feels and remembers, it enhances our sense of its quirky and necessary presence ... The idea of story in The Pages is multi-layered and fabulously unstable.
Hamilton has great fun with the conceit of the book as its own narrator ... Yet Hamilton’s underlying purpose is deeply serious. With considerable subtlety he shows contemporary horrors mirroring those of almost a century ago ... As befits its narrator, The Pages is full of literary references, in particular to other accounts of love and lovemaking. It offers a richly detailed portrait of Roth himself ... At once allusive, playful, contemplative and consequential, The Pages is a remarkable novel, worthy of its great antecedent.
