bookwookiee

In Violent Cases, Gaiman and McKean explore the flawed nature of memory. The narrator attempts to recall his childhood visits with an osteopath, but these reflections bring him no closer to discovering the "true" version of the events in question. Instead, the memories remain skewed by time and subject to any number of external influences - a reluctance on his father's behalf to discuss the doctor, his memories melding with cultural references, the narrator's own naivete as the child making these memories, and perhaps even a confluence of real events and imagined (or dreamed) events. Fragmented and nebulous, it is impossible to separate fact from fiction, and this inability continues to burden the narrator.

I'm on a real Gaiman kick these days and I thoroughly enjoyed this. McKean's illustrations are amazing. The story was fluid and abstract. I read it right before work and it definitely set a strange tone for my day. Gaiman and McKean don't offer any answers. This may be a look at the complexity of memory and the human psyche, but they don't offer analysis. So if you're looking for that, look elsewhere. The questions Gaiman asks, the uncomfortable observations he makes, his ability to verbalize what many of us understand only in incomprehensible and abstract terms is what keeps Gaiman readers (or at least this Gaiman reader) coming back for more.