The late Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) left us with a vast array of dizzyingly engrossing and baffling novels and short fiction that never quite matched genre description nor expectation. Mr. Wolfe instead delighted in playing with styles and used unreliable narrators to offer tales that you can never read the same way twice. Best known for his The Book of the New Sun tetralogy (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch), often referred to by his uncanny offerings to a tired and often unimaginative fantasy genre The Wizard-Knight, and always hinted at for "shorter" masterpieces such as Peace and The Fifth Head of Cerberus (you know, the ones that you can pat yourself on the back for getting the gist of, even if it's after someone tells you what to look for), Mr. Wolfe is widely acknowledged throughout the literary field, as well as by readers, to be one of the finest writers of the last hundred years. Before passing, Gene Wolfe left us with a pair of novels that were wildly unappreciated and somehow brushed aside in what many have presumed to be necessary precautions against tainting the legacy of a writer that was in his decline in his later years. (I challenge you to find anyone who read Wolfe after the 90's who can a) give you reasons why they think this that can be backed up with facts about his last several novels and b) read more than just Shadow of the Torturer.) One of these novels, Interlibrary Loan, was a posthumous surprise: quietly announced by Tor, Wolfe's final complete novel was subsequently released in the summer of 2020 to little fanfare. I myself nearly missed this one, and would have were I not utterly intrigued by his second to last book, A Borrowed Man. So, I set myself the task of rereading this right before tucking in to the sequel.
A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe
I have reread this book a couple of times since it was published in 2015, and what strikes me the most about it is how accessible it is. It’s absurdly simple, as far as Gene Wolfe science fiction stories go: there’s been murders, and a piece of property that wishes it was still human or could ever be human is going to solve this murder if it has to take him to another planet and back again a couple of times to do so. But, yet again, this is a Gene Wolfe novel, and you are always told, at some point, that you can not ever take the story at face value.
With that said, it’s possible to find the world-building lacking because you are left wanting to explore that world: a few hundred years in the future, humanity exists in pockets and there’s been a cleansing of anyone deemed less healthy or fit for survival. So those clinging to the planet’s surface can feel like they deserve the energy and resources and technology at their disposal, including other, poorer, humans.
If you are bewildered by the main character’s actions or motivations, it’s because you are ignoring the clues literally (ha!) handed out in the beginning of the book that explain why and how our Mr. Smithe will proceed as the plot thickens and then thins.
So what really did happen here? And why? Or how? Did I look in the right direction? Did I get lost in the misdirection? Did I want this to be a mystery, a thriller, a science fiction novel, or the weird chimera that this must have become at some careless turn of a page?
Well, in my humble opinion, what Mr. Wolfe has accomplished with this book is an open and closed murder mystery in a bleak future not too far off from a present-day we have already imagined for ourselves. If it does many things right the number one thing this novel does is casually and masterfully show the reader how to do science fiction without having it spill all over itself. A Borrowed Man is fun, and quick-paced, with little to none of Wolfe’s typical verbose passages and digressions (instead, he seems to wink and steeple his fingers and allow you the reader to insist upon being granted wisdom from his words.) This is a fanboy's delight, and a 4.5/5.
In re-reading this, I was ready to immediately devour...
Interlibrary Loan, by Gene Wolfe
Oh, good. Mr. Wolfe left us with a mystery. This is a temporary review because it would be a mistake to read a Wolfe novel once and then assume you a) know how you feel about it, b) understood it, c) read it thoroughly. A lot of folks see these points as reasons to trash his works, but I’m a reader and I love reading and there’s few to no authors that wrote for readers. (Instead, I'd argue that most published authors write for themselves and for an audience programmed with expectations - which is, truly, a different thing altogether.) There are certainly no authors that approach Gene Wolfe.
This book is a science fiction magical realism supernatural murder mystery treasure hunt, and, possibly, a love story. What do I know? Nothing. Yet. It’s possible that Interlibrary Loan is Gene Wolfe exploring his own motivations and machinations as a writer. It’s possible everything in this book is misdirection and it’s all nonsense except for maybe what we’re told at the end. (And yes you can bet on that much: the final words of the novel are the key to the whole thing.) Did I love this book? No. Did I dislike this book? Certainly not.
What was this about, and what happened, or why, let alone when, I again couldn't say, but can definitely say that this book, unlike its predecessor, does not contain context for its sequence of events or the actions that occur therein. The reader will kindly note that there is much to be made of the fact that Smithe is a slave, and that there is likely something about his nature and the way he and his fellow clones are treated that unlocks a clue to the jarring and disjointed narrative we are given.
So, for now, I’m going to advise that this is not a novel for someone who has never read Gene Wolfe or has issues with non-linear and unreliable narration. Interlibrary Loan is obviously intelligently written, but its purposes and allusions may baffle and inspire indignation more often than it hands the reader anything real or substantial. And that’s what I enjoyed about it. Just as it is what I enjoy about every Gene Wolfe book I've ever read and ever will read: there's hidden meaning, obscure messages, something sinister and something wonderful and maybe they are each one in the same. I look forward to reading Interlibrary Loan again and again so I can know for myself what it is I read, even if that’s not what I was reading. 4/5.
- Frank
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