i have just finished reading zerostrata – a book written by andersen prunty. i ordered it from bizarro central, and waited impatiently for it to arrive. it arrived the other night and its plain yellow envelope package earned a few sideways glances from my wife.

i began reading during my lunch break – it’s only a small novel of only 150 pages, and so i managed to consume it all bar the final chapter. it was hard to put down – terribly hard.

prunty has a soft, almost sublime style. he doesn’t so much leap about his plot as lay it out like a railway line and ask you to follow at your own pace. he’s got a definite handle on his dreamlike style, and it’s a delight to read from beginning to end. i particularly liked the way he built small peaks of tension only to dismiss them in an almost lighthearted manner. it mirrored the quest for childhood in which all bad things are easily quashed by the positivity and boundless optimism of youth. the fears of such things as being mugged by teenagers, or having one’s legs caught in bear traps, could easily be washed away if only you rearrange your expectations for a moment and allow the dream’s plot to shift and recognise the fact that, like a fairy tale, it’ll all be right in the end…

several odd characters litter the novella, and i felt prunty wasn’t trying too hard to be “strange” with his story. he seemed very comfortable in himself and it showed in the reflective story he told.

the treehouse itself was an interesting feature. when the central character, hansel, is introducing us to his treehouse, you can feel all those overwhelming moments of childhood as they rush over and through him. the moment he stands inside the treehouse is, for him, a moment of awakening. it is like everything that has happened before this moment is washed away. he enters the story as a morose, almost nailbitingly annoying emo character, only to stand on his treehouse and immediately become an optimistic and curious character in search of his light. and he finds, in gretal (naturally), a beacon to which he can direct himself.

their relationship is subtle and amusing in parts, as they battle gretal’s evil grandmother and visit the moon via a rope ladder before ending up in a gingerbread house with their ankles caught in bear traps.

the only parts of the book which made me cringe a little were a few sentences here and there which i felt weren’t needed. such as “within minutes we were out of the woods but things were not any less strange.”

i just felt the novel managed to be strange without having to draw attention to this. he did this a few times in the book, and i felt each time it was undeserved. i felt better having hansel just walk us through without him turning around and saying “wow, is this strange” as though i’m supposed to stop and say “woah, yeah! you’re right! it IS strange.”

i liked him better when he stayed subtle and just moved through his moments – such as the rather awesome lettuce pirate. i wanted to just go with the surreality, not have my attention drawn to the fact that it was strange. it felt a little contrived, is what i’m saying, when he just stated something was weird. but that’s really a small criticism for a novel which really did entertain me and keep me interested until the end.

by far, my favourite scene was the one in which zasper is hanging from a branch after trying to fly, with hansel telling him he’ll get some help and zasper’s almost contented reply: “take your time.”

all in all, a tight little novel woven with childhood dreams both lost and found and laced with a comfortable positivity which will both satisfy and bring a smile to your face. i most certainly will be ordering more of prunty’s work!

you can get your copy of zerostrata from bizarro central. i personally recommend them.