If you're reading this blog, I probably needn't tell you how I found out about this book --It's the brainchild of Central Library's own Eric Lundgren. I didn't read one book so much as three. Alternating between the proof copy he graciously gave my department, the copy I bought from him myself, and the bestseller copy at Central, I was able to read it at a fairly brisk pace(for me anyhow - I am a notoriously slow reader).
The Facades is a book about the outward and inward investigations of the forlorn Sven Norberg as he searches the alleys and auditoriums of the city Trude (a pointed analogue for our own fair city) for his missing wife, the revered and adored opera singer Molly Norberg.
Sven's hapless quest introduces the reader to the strange characters and institutions of this improbable yet familiar city. For me, this improbability is exactly what makes Facades such a joy to read and gives it its existential bite. Operatic and imaginative flourishes such a shopping mall built like a labyrinth, a public library protected from bulldozers by renegade armed librarians, and a rest home run like a competitive graduate school program for writing memoirs set the tone of the novel, which is the sort of sardonic voice you'd find in the films of Terry Gilliam or Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Trude and its inhabitants are just "larger-than-life" enough to cut through the mire of realism long enough to poke at the fleshy guts beneath.
But, this surreal scaffolding is just the beginning. Trude is peopled with all the gory details of an immersive living-breathing metropolis, much like Sven's son's hyper-violent video game "Bad Cops, No Badges." While you're there you'll want to take a stroll down "Dead Mayor Blvd.", wander the aisles of the teen-clothing mall-store "Sparkles, Cuz!", or stealthily procure a copy of the library themed smut film "Indecent Reference."
In Trude, the enigmatic architect Bernhard designs his buildings in defiance of the city. Like the "Ringstrasse", that shopping mall built like a labyrinth, his works entice and frustrate at the same time, they are bitter love letters from a reluctant citizen. Lundgren keeps the pages turning doling out clues to aid Sven's lonely quest, which often gives the book the feel and momentum of a mystery novel. But, beware reader, The Facades is a Bernhard original.
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