Lethe Bashar’s Novel of Life
A serialized novel, updating weekly.
Lethe Bashar’s Novel of Life is a work of fictional autobiography. The main character, Lethe, is the author’s self-proclaimed alter ego and former adolescent self. On three different weblogs, spanning 25 years, the reader is encouraged to read the text from any point in time and proceed in any direction.
Lethe in Spain follows Lethe’s adventures living abroad—at first with a Senora and then by himself in a pensione. Lethe in Vegas is a wild romp through the lower west side of Vegas, and the events which lead Lethe out of Vegas and back to an exclusive rehab center in Tuscon, Arizona, where he won’t stay for long.
Family in Decline traces the shaky beginnings of Lethe’s family unit as it highlights a self-absorbed artist-mother and a psuedo-spiritual father. The blog explores the stories behind each member of Lethe’s family, including his sister, and shows how Lethe evolved into an impulsive idealist and nascent drug addict.
Although subject matter deals with themes of drugs, divorce, rebellion, and disease, Lethe Bashar’s Novel of Life presents the youthful and somewhat foolish attempt to transform a world of suffering into a quixotic performance of self through art.
Lethe Bashar’s Novel of Life
— contains some harsh language —
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Editorial Reviews
Complex, textured fiction
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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Gritty Real Life Drama
Lethe Bashar’s story is dark and dreamy. With a name like "Lethe," the river of no memory in Greek Mythology, that should be expected. He exists in a world of rough characters, dingy surroundings, and little hope.
The author is excellent at establishing atmosphere, as Lethe descends into this grim reality, exploring drugs and the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas. If anything, the writer succeeds too well at making the story-world seem forsaken, as it makes having sympathy for any particular character almost impossible. Lethe seems detached from reality, and at the same time trying to experience everything the world has to offer. This tension between detachment and experience, philosophy and material existence, is one of the themes playing out throughout the story.
All in all, the author has to be given credit for blending real life and fiction to create such a world, mirroring the sharp corners and cracked facets of our own.
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Most Helpful Member Reviews
Constant Discovery
Understanding the character of Lethe is a process that can take many directions with this unique format or medium. Sharing a life with the author puts me in an inimitable position as well in terms of analysis of The Novel of Life.
Reading these blogs has been comparable to getting to know someone for the first time. This experience caused me to struggle initially because I felt as if I knew the author too well to have a useful perspective for review purposes. Would I miss something that a fresh set of eyes would see due to my own assumptions about the character? Would my emotional response of disgust or horror taint the true beauty or aesthetic value? Would I miss some important nuance because of all of these factors?
Our relationship certainly colors my perception of this creative art, but I believe that it also offers invaluable qualities as well. With that said, I will allow the reader to identify the strengths and possible weaknesses of my subjective analysis of The Novel of Life.
The Novel of Life is not only been an archeological experience for the author, but also for the reader. The medium chosen allows the reader, or perhaps guest may be a better term, to explore the different facets of Lethe’s life as they so choose to do. The stories are threaded together in away that each corner or path can turn in different degrees or directions. This experience gives getting to know Lethe depth and distant perspective.
As the author continues to “shape and reshape these memories” of “the characters” that “follow” him throughout his life in a “non-linear” direction, the revisions and additions illustrate for the guest how the character is evolving. One of the strongest attributes of this work is the different way in which the guest learns more about Lethe and his character development.
The one avenue of the appreciation of Lethe that is glaring to me is how his perception of others changes over time in dramatic ways. This is a “non-linear” process as well, often seeming teeter-totter like at times, especially with his perception of those closest to him. It seems that those he does not know as well, the character is quick to make judgment and stick to it. As the story continues, it appears as though Lethe becomes more and more black and white in his descriptions of others, either as good or as bad. Perhaps this is due to the isolative nature that drug addiction creates.
This is also the case in how Lethe perceives himself. Throughout the stories it seems at different times in his short life he fluctuates in how he sees and feels about himself. For example his grandiose persona is splattered across much of the Vegas section, but towards the end of this heart wrenching story, the guest sees the raw vulnerability of Lethe and his horrific experiences.
I felt jolted when I read the vivid depiction of these scenes, especially those involving the reckless use of drugs. Intentional self-destruction at times interwoven with this “grand purpose” of writing The Novel of Life confuses me, but that is no way any detriment to how it is portrayed. In all actuality this confusion fuels suspense, which keeps me clicking away.
The secondary, only to character development and the author’s use of a unique medium for such an experience, is the ease and grace this author commandingly uses to illustrates a variety of settings. Vibrant and dark, contrast is once again painted before the guest. The atmosphere created evokes a sense of exotic escape and painful peril. I could compare it to experiencing a high after smoking a hit of crack to when the addict can’t find another rock, but lacking personal experience, I refer to the author.
I look forward to reading the next chapter completed.
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Lethe Bashar in Madrid:Review by Gretta Barclay
When Lethe Bashar goes to Madrid, Spain for a semester of college abroad, he has no idea of the psychological roller-coaster he is about to embark on.
A self-absorbed neophyte, with both naive and grandiose ideas about himself and the world, Lethe lands in a place that is so uncomfortable to him that one wants to jump into the novel and save him from himself.
In Lethe’s behavior and activities, the reader can feel deeply the suffering and pain of Lethe’s existence in Spain. At the same time, Lethe’s sensitivity and charm make you want to protect him, even from his own exaggerated and imagined horrors, and you find yourself being drawn to him on every page.
He is just so darn real in his observations of himself and like a sinking ship, knows he is going down but doesn’t know how to stop himself. His feelings are raw with emotion but somehow sweetened with his charm. His profound insecurities which are apparent everywhere, for example, walking to school where he envisions obstacles that "grow out of empty air," are so frightening to Lethe that he cannot continue his walk to school, and instead, sits down with an old man and his dog.
Anyone who has felt completely lost walking around in his own skin, will find himself in this provoking description of Lethe in Spain. The author is masterful in describing his fears and makes you feel his agony. He is deeply unhappy; a very troubled wanderer looking for an anchor in the wilderness.
Lethe focuses on his face and an imagined plethora of acne that only he sees. Even his psychiatrist sees no acne on his face, but for Lethe, the acne is real and is an excuse for hiding out in the Senora’s house which he eventually does instead of going to school. Lethe also compares himself to everyone he meets, always coming up short and inadequate.
He needs constant reassurance about himself, and God, don’t you know so many people like this, who drain your energy with their neediness just as Lethe begins to drain the energy from the Senora by hanging around her house all day, doing nothing.
Over and over again in the author’s writing, you see and feel the desperation in the character of Lethe Bashar. Will Lethe survive? I wonder . . . One is not sure especially after a failed attempt (even in this Lethe sees himself as a failure) to commit suicide in his bedroom. As the book continues, Lethe becomes more and more of a recluse staying in his bedroom at the Senora’s house or sitting on his balcony overlooking the people in the street who are going about the small tasks of living, something Lethe is totally incapable of doing without breaking out in a panic attack.
Lethe becomes quite satisfied to just sit and watch the world in front of him with detached interest. He becomes very content with this behavior and seems to have no desire to be part of the living forces of life. Nor does he seem capable of taking any real responsibility for his own life. He tells his psychiatrist to tell his dad everything; that he doesn’t care, thus turning over the worries of his life to his father.
When Lethe says to his school professor, "I don’t feel well," when he is still going to school, we come to learn what this really means. The detailed prose of the author lets us know that Lethe not only does not feel well; he is NOT well in a most profound psychological way. He engulfs himself in the protective walls of the Senora’s "cozy" house, at the same time, continues to see exaggerated and frightening images . . .
"Flecks of garlic tumbled off her shoulders like rocks in an avalanche." He looks to the Senora, a sixty-five year old Spanish woman to save him from himself and puts all of his hope in her supposed wisdom and story-telling. But how long can THIS last for Lethe? And what is the reality in this?
Soon the Senora becomes tired of Lethe Bashar and his inertia, and eventually asks him to leave her house, at least during the day. I am wondering what will come next for Lethe Bashar. Where will he find his next safety net and security blanket? And what will that look like? I am anxious to read on.
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