Alex Garland’s latest novel Coma certainly lives up to its title. It nearly left me comatose, but thank goodness I extricated myself in time from the spiralling vortex of boredom by cutting short my read.
The protagonist Carl (we never get to know his last name), while trying to help a young woman who was being disturbed, is attacked by a gang of thugs in the underground in London one night. When he awakes, he finds that he experiences lapses in memory. We never get to know whether it’s reality he’s experiencing or whether it’s just a figment of his imagination. Is he still in a coma or is he not? Go figure ‘cos I gave up halfway.
It’s a very short book and doesn’t take too long to read. I was 3/4 way into the book but it became a bit of a drone for me. It might prove different for others.
One thing I liked though, were the pictures that are in the book–it’s been a while since I last read a book with pictures! The 40 woodprints in the book are done by Nicholas Garland, the political cartoonist, who also happens to be the author’s father. Even if you don’t read the book, it’s nice to have a browse just to have a look at the pictures.