Three Thirds

Reader reviewed by Barnes and Noble reviewer

A reviewer from New York, February 19, 2003,
Strong debut
I found out about this book from a friend who came across it on an author's website. It's written in a very personal manner like you're having a conversation with the narrator, and it concerns three friends named David, who are separated at the beginning of the book by a train crash in Nebraska. I liked that beginning -- sort of symbolic that their train is derailed in light of the book's tone. It also reminded me of the beginning of the movie Mulholland Drive with the car accident. As the book goes on, we find one of the Davids in the city living with his grandmother and working for a corporate communications company where he has terrible headaches, and another in his old college town in the country meeting up with three old friends in a rock band, moving in with them and slowly becoming depressed. The third (that's how he's described: "the third") is the one who was injured in the train crash and gets left behind in the Midwest. His sections are much more abstract, for the most part -- he's trying to get out of the Midwest -- but what's conveyed about him seems to be more of his innerworkings, his thoughts and feelings, sometimes dreams, rather than his interpersonal interactions. Probably 'cause he doesn't have any, really. The book is basically a build-up to the third's reunion with the other two, 'cause during his time after the train wreck in the hospital, he has had psychic visions through his dreams he wants to share with the other two. I think the title basically indicates all three of the characters are parts of one whole, but it's not completely obvious in the reading. What's also interesting is that most of the other characters are named for what they are or for the opposite of what they are. Like for instance "the serial adulterer" who is now faithful to his current girlfriend. Or the woman, "the blue-eyed bigmouth" who really has no dialogue. It's a very intriguing book. I just sort of wish it had ended differently between the third and the other two Davids. I won't give it away, though.

Also recommended: The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene, Falconer by John Cheever, Delta of Venus by Anais Nin, Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller, Last Words by William S. Burroughs