Lev GrossmanWarp: A Novel

For a friend

Lev Grossman spoke about "Warp" at Barnes and Noble. Same material as his preface to this reprint, more or less. I enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to "Codex".

I honestly read this right after I had finished The Magicians- which I absolutely fell in love with. This book - I tried to like but I couldn't connect with it and it felt like something was missing. Not a horrible read- just not something that was my taste.

If you’re a fan of Lev Grossman, this is kind of a must read. Mind you, it isn’t a particularly good book, nor does much happen in it. Okay, nothing really happens. It’s very much a pretentious, post-college type first novel. Truth be told, I’m surprised it even found a publisher because, while any sharp editor might recognize the potential here, it’s easy to see the author reaching for something that seems just beyond his grasp. Of course, if you’re familiar with his later works, you know he gets there eventually. And that’s precisely why it’s a must for fans of his Magicians trilogy - because the seeds of those epic and wonderful novels are on almost every page of Warp. So yeah, for that it gets four-stars.In brief, it’s the story of Hollis Kessler, a glum, broke and unemployed college grad living in Boston who, along with his sardonic pal Peters, breaks into a mansion for a weekend of debauchery while the owners are away. They both smoke and drink a lot, discuss friends, former classmates and the various women in their lives and toss around a lot of nerdy film quotes. That’s pretty much it. Oh, and Hollis has a constant interior narration in response to what’s going on around him that consists of quotations from books and films (some easily recognizable, others not so much).So much of what’s in this book ended up in the Magicians in some form or another – if Hollis is the prototype for the Magicians protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, than surely Peters is a nascent version of Elliot. Their whole dynamic, their geeky conversations and way of speaking - it's all there. The two breaking into the mansion owned by acquaintances of Peters vaguely recalls Elliot and Alice's struggle to gain access to the Physical Kids' cottage. The moment when Hollis steps off the trolley into the huge deserted brick plaza of the Government Center had strange echoes of Quentin's arrival in the Neitherlands. Even the recurring image of a migrating flock of geese, which merits two brief mentions in Warp, ended up playing a significant role in the trilogy. And how often are blown glass animals mentioned in modern literature, for Christ's sake? It's as if Grossman wrote about the sorry state of his life in Warp and then, years later, revisited that time and place to uncover all the potential magic lurking just beneath the surface.But mostly, it's the tone.I think the fact that this book was re-issued now, in the wake of the enormous popularity of the Magicians, actually casts it in a more favorable light than when it first came out (read some of the Amazon reviews from 1998/1999 and you’ll see what I mean). As I was reading it, I kept expecting something magical to happen, because, tonally, it reminded me so much of Grossman’s other books. Naturally, my expectations were dashed. Therefore, Hollis becomes a stand-in for the reader. He also seems to be searching for something or waiting for something to happen. His dramatic inner monologue betrays his aspirations for a more remarkable life, but outwardly, his inertia prevents him from achieving anything. That intangible magic is just beyond his grasp. I suppose the same could be said for Lev Grossman in 1998. Thank goodness he kept at it.I would recommend this for Lev Grossman fans. Anyone who has not read the Magicians and/or Codex, not so much.

While I loved Grossman's Magician series and the characters were in their twenties, this story was a waste of my time. It was banal, trite and predictable with a pointless ending.

Warp is an almost perfect vacuum. Nothing can exist inside this vacuum unless it's inert and moving in no particular direction. For the better part of a weekend Hollis Kessler moves languidly through the motions of early adulthood with a few friends caught in the vacuum of existence with no forward motion. He senses he's adrift but he's unable to do anything about it except in his imagination where he lives a life of excitement and romance and great success. In real life his relationships fit into his almost perfect vacuum without disturbing the few remaining molecules and atoms at all.Lev Grossman has captured self-disenfranchisement and the great gulf between motivated youth and something less than slacker youth, as slacker requires a definite commitment and presented us with what being adrift in those twixt and tween years can really be like. I love It!!! I was there when I was in college and that was fifty years ago! He's painted it perfectly and even though it's specific to it's time and placeit's also universal. And yet the novel has it moments of intrigue and mystery as well as a sense of fate and magical moments serendipitous in their occurance (a girl of course).Mr. Grossman is the author of the highly successful The Magicians series and it is fascinating to witness the birth of the imagination that served him so well in his future endeavors. Everyone is focusing on the story as being the forerunner of a character in The Magicians (Quentin Coldwater) and it does reflect that character's development as an aspect of Grossman's own development at the time. His quick wit and fast imaginative turns of event (the most dramatic moments in the story involve the breaking and entering of a home that carries no real threat with it and yet you feel the tension that this creates for the vacuum as palpably as any bank heist or super hero showdown you'd richly internally adrenalize (a deft referral if ever).If you once felt lost in youth or like you were simply wandering the Earth with no real purpose or reason then you're going to experience Hollis' weekend as stridently as he. This is the kind of book that can only come from a nascent talent that was indeed in search of its voice. In the telling it's also a great story by a truly accomplished author and like Seinfeld is at its best because it's about nothing really. It's the getting there that's fun, or frustrating, depending on your perspective.I highly recommend it. It's a good afternoon's read that you'll finish quickly and feel forever.

Interesting read. Very personal and introspective.

As described, arrived promptly, though with the slightest signs of damage on the corners of the cover front and back, other than that that it is fine, thank you.