Book Review: The Switchman by Alexander H. Rosenberg
rating: 4
Vincent's life falls apart in a matter of days for reasons difficult to understand. A mysterious relative of his close friend tells him he would be safe if he were to embrace his new destiny and save an innocent woman from painful death. Is she lying? What's her true motive? Vincent's new path takes him through blindness, excruciating pain and the discovery of his incredible power. His friend's relative pushes him to embrace his ability to control people's fate at will, manipulate them through their eyes. Reeling from the loss of his girlfriend and a brutal attack,Vincent learns to make sense of his new life while a ruthless enemy stalks him.What is free will? Ultimately Alexander H. Rosenberg attempts to address an age-old question that has plagued psychologists and philosophers alike for thousands of years. In his novel The Switchman Rosenberg casually introduces us to his interpretation of free will, and the commanding forces behind it. The author has obviously made it his mission to encourage the reader to leave the story with a thousand questions buzzing around their head, and he accomplishes this beautifully in the 147 pages. We join Vincent, our protagonist, blind and alone in Yosemite National Park, in a well used though often poorly done style, Rosenberg starts the story in the middle, thankfully he does not fall pray to the trap of confusing the reader from the start, instead allowing intrigue as were introduced to a unique and dangerous situation in the very first page. Vincent is an everyman, nothing special, just an accountant from the big city thats working his way through life and keeping his head down. Everything is going well for him, as far as he can tell, he has a good job, good friends, and a girlfriend that hes planning on proposing to. Only when Vincent has a chance conversation with his childhood friend Sophia does his life take an unexpected turn. Alina comes into Vincents life, or perhaps shes always been there, in the background, and from the moment he meets her everything changes. Vincent is given a gift, his life is turned on its head, hes threatened with a gun and almost gives way to a drunken night of self-pity. Alina is there to help him, and we watch as his character evolves into someone with great power, a power which he must decide what to do with, as it raises a considerable number of ethical questions in his mind. Rosenberg plays with Vincent, and the reader, throughout the book, nothing happens when you expect it to, or the way you expect it to, and predictions can usually be thrown out of the window, allowing for surprises on every page. Characters and introduced in almost flippant ways, explained, and then only touched on briefly throughout the rest of the book, the entire work seems to set the reader up for something grander. The book bounces around quite a lot, I have already made note of the fact the author starts in the middle of the story, while not a bad thing in itself, occasionally I found myself getting slightly lost when the story changed from the present, to the past, back to the present, on to a small side story that came into play later, then back to the present again. It did not detract from the story, but could break flow on occasion. Another interesting aspect to the book is the way it seems to almost change genre half way through the story, those of you that are fans of a Michael Marshall Smith style of writing may appreciate the under-used approach to genres that authors such as Rosenberg and Smith employ. I truly feel for the librarians across the world when they have to categorise some of these works. Read this book, expect the unexpected, be thrilled by the ending, and wait patiently for book two in the series, I know I am. The book is available for purchase on the Amazon Store: The Switchman (Book 1) The book can be found on GoodReads: The Switchman (Book 1)