Lethe Bashar’s Novel of Life is an interlinked trio of webnovels about the life of the title character, Lethe Bashar—a self-deceiving, self-hating, and wholly messed-up young man who expects far more of himself than he is willing to put in the effort to obtain.  Each piece is markedly different from the others, in terms of narrative focus, characterization, and even the quality of writing.  Lethe in Vegas is, to my mind, the best of the set, and I have decided to base my overall rating on it, as it really is a vivid, well-told story.  However, for the sake of this review, I will discuss each piece in turn.

Chronologically, Family in Decline starts earliest, with Lethe as a young boy, and covers events in his family’s life until his late teens.  The story focusses mostly on his parents, and follows their relationship as it decays over the final 10 or so years of their 25 year marriage.  Lethe’s father is a doctor, a very formal man who deludes himself about what is important to him.  If asked, he’d say family.  His behaviour, though, would seem to contradict.  Lethe’s mother is an artist and house-wife.  She is deeply neurotic, and keeps her children very distant.  Over the course of the story, her health breaks down.  The loveless marriage follows, apace.  Lethe develops a drug habit—nicotine and Ritalin, at first, heroin later.  Overall, it’s not a happy story. 

Family in Decline is not a compelling read, in the traditional sense—the writing is rather distant and treats its characters similarly so.  In a way, it’s almost a soap opera, full of people who give and get little of what they should, who delude themselves with pretty lies, and ignore those delusions at their peril.  Still, it provides interesting texture and background for the rest of the series.

Lethe in Spain follows Lethe in his teens when he goes to Spain for school.  At this point in his life, Lethe’s drug habit isn’t severe, but his growing mental instability—definitely a large side effect of the family life shown in Family in Decline—comes to the fore.  Prone to anxiety attacks, and just generally lazy, Lethe spends a lot of time obsessing about his appearance and wondering why people hate him so much.  At times, the story is unrelenting, undirected teenaged angst, compounded by legitimate character flaws (narcissim, anxiety, etc.).

The writing in Lethe in Spain is probably the most uneven of the set, possibly because this is some of the most personal writing for the author, and he hasn’t yet figured out how to separate himself from the story (the author describes Novel of Life as ficitonalized autobiography).  At times, the writing is heartbreaking.  At others, it’s just purple and overwrought.  However, I know that the author is actively editing it, so hopefully these problems can be cleared up.

Finally, we come to Lethe in Vegas, the jewel of the set.  Lethe in Vegas follows Lethe in his twentieth year, after running away from a drug rehab program to persue a life on his own terms—terms that seem mostly to involve hanging out by the pool and doing drugs.  The story is vivid and involving, and the character, here, is well-defined.  Lethe still clearly has problems, but, at this point, he has integrated those problems into his sense of self—he has found some level of comfort with them.  He sees himself as larger-than-life, and sets out to have larger-than-life fun.  The world will tell him what to do no longer!  In a way, this is also Lethe at his most likeable. 

Of course, Vegas is the ultimate setting for self-delusion, and what Lethe finds is a little seedier than the tourism ads would lead you to believe.  He quickly finds himself experimenting with crack, and involved with a creepy older man who may ultimately want things from Lethe that Lethe isn’t willing to give.  We wouldn’t want to be Lethe, by any means, but it certainly is interesting riding with (from a safe distance).

Overall, Lethe Bashar’s Novel of Life is an ambitious project to make sense out of a senseless life.  At times, it falls well short of those lofty goals.  At others, it does just fine.  Novel of Life is never a happy story, but if you enjoy reading complex, textured fiction, give it a shot.  Definitely start with Lethe in Vegas, then see where the ride takes you.

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