Review: Tree of Codes

Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It's first worth noting that this is not so much a book as much as it is a short story experiment. Jonathan Safran Foer took his favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles, and cut out most of the words, leaving nothing more than the words that form his story. It means that there may be pages with only 4 words, or huge, huge gaps, or what have you.

It's a strange read, all things considered. I can't really judge it on literary merit, as it's not really meant to be. I think it's a cool concept that I never need to experience again. It succeeds, but to what end, y'know?

I definitely think people should try to pick this up and read it - it's only 120 pages or so before considering the amount of text excised from the original source material, and it's something that should probably be experienced.



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