I have been looking forward to reading Ibid: A Life by Mark Dunn. It is the imaginative biography of Jonathan Blashette, a three-legged man. After opening with several letters between the author, his editor, and his brother, that explain what happened to the actual manuscript, the entire story consists of the endnotes (the use of "footnotes" is obviously a pun) to the missing fictional biography.I found Ibid hilarious, and really did laugh out loud several times. It tackles, tongue in cheek, the addition of all sorts of real historical references while obliquely telling Jonathan Blashette's life story by inference, through endnotes. Using real historical references and people to tell the story made Ibid even more successful and accessible for me. Most of the endnotes themselves are quite funny.While telling a story through endnotes seems like it might be awkward, I thought it really flowed smoother than most of my experiences in reading endnotes and was a fresh take on another way to tell a story. The fact that many of the footnotes were long and rambling segues added to the humor.My one suggestion would have been to make some of the endnotes more closely resemble those you see in other biographies. Often biographers will discuss the problems with previous biographies or mention discrepancies between them - but that's a minor quibble. All in all, I really quite enjoyed Dunn's Ibid, although I also know it will not be a good choice for everyone.very highly recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
I struggled through this for the first 50 or so pages. It's such a unique book. I REALLY liked his Ella Minnow Pea and Welcome to Higby. Dunn is amazing with his language risk taking and stylistic approaches. I wish I could meet him. I think his Ella Minnow Pea is the most accessible and smart, literary teen readers would like it best. This one is good. It's just that you have to get yourself used to the style. I will admit that I found it frustrating and irritating at times. I forced myself to persevere. I think today's teen and young adult readers will not struggle as much as I did because they have been raised by books that represent a variety of styles (mangas, verse fiction, graphic non fiction, etc.). But, I also think that you have to be a strong reader to get through this book. The idea is cool - an editor destroyed the biography of one Jonathan Bashette and all that is left are the notes used to write the book. So we read Bashette's life story through the notes, end note, bibliography, etc. Very unique. The humor is slapstick but also satirical and high brow.
What do You think about Ibid (2005)?
I felt the story as a whole and as a result of being told through footnotes, while a really cool concept in theory, in practice did not translate well. The book was too disjointed and I found the format confusing and difficult to follow at times. I also didn't feel I got a well developed character in Johnathan Blashette (main character). It was frustrating to only get little snapshots that never appeared to sum to whole. I did enjoy the humor found within and there were many times I laughed out loud at the author's quirky writing.
—Jessica
This book is a story told entirely in end notes. Interesting premise, but have you ever tried to read 230-some pages of end notes back to back? It's extraordinarily tedious. If you are ADD and enjoy the equivalent of very short chapters, then you might enjoy this book. But only if you have a darned good working knowledge of 20th century social history. I mean, it makes a Deanna Durbin reference. Raise your hand if you know who Deanna Durbin is (btw, Camille, do you still have the letter she sent you?) I'm giving it two stars for mentioning the Boston "Molassacre" of 1919 and the Coconut Grove fire of 1946(ish.)
—Carla
I read Ella Minnow Pea (and LOVED it!) and expected the same young adult tone and style. However, I was disappointed to see a swear word on page 20 in the first chapter. There was another swear word on page 27 in the 3rd chapter (the last page I read of the book). There was also a lot of reference to prostitutes that I found discouraging (the main character having had an affair with one, a relative being one, etc...).I have waited almost 3 years since reading Ella Minnow Pea to have access to a library that had this book. I'm disappointed that the author chose that kind of tone and style to offer his experimental literary genius.
—Jen
