The Investigation by Philippe Claudel
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
Books don't always need payoffs, but if you're going to set up a lot of weird stuff going on, you had best have a good reason for it and give some satisfactory reveals to make my investment worthwhile. The Investigation is sort of the prototypical modern "weird" without being quite as good as your Barron or VanderMeer as it forgets how to finish in favor of what ends up being a really fascinating start.
The story follows The Investigator, who has to do an Investigation into some suicides at The Enterprise. Along the way, he runs afoul of The Policeman, ends up talking with the Psychiatrist, is mistaken for a Tourist, and so on.
You get the idea.
The book's successes are in setting up this really confusing, really interesting setting and sequence of events. As we go further down the proverbial rabbit hole, we get both more information and less information. The problem is really at the end, where the resolution feels kind of thrown together. In a way, many resolutions in life are like that, but in fiction? Especially sort-of experimental fiction? Not so much.
Try it if you're in for a challenge, but know that it's going to get a little weird and that it might not be quite what you want it to be in the end.
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