This non-linear narrative is mind-blowing and non-understandable at its first read.

Yet the enigma compels you to read on at the same time. It goes on to intrigue you with his style of writing and decipher the paragraphs by piecing one information with another.

A feature of this literature i’d like to point out and commend is its genre. It interestingly fits into several categories. You could call it mystery, detective, or psychological thriller.

Have your pick, but I’ll classify this as magical realism. With its reality context, we are able to relate to it yet things get slightly peculiar when a tinge of magical realism is injected into the narrative.

Ultimately, I was immensely fascinated by the allegory of the ‘garden of forking paths’ which was actually came in both physical and symbolic forms. I am impressed as they were well blended into the plot. The labyrinth was a physical setting, seen as Ts’ui Pen’s Pavilion of the Limpid Sun.

Also, I saw it as setting of non-linear branches of its plot, which encompasses many levels. Last but not least, Ts’ui Pen’s novel is also a labyrinth, consisting of countless endings.

All in all, this was in fact a good read as the author did a fairly good job with this genre of magical realism. If not done well, it would turn out cheap but this one was applaudable.

Although I woudn’t be exploring in this direction for this semester’s project, I actually do look forward to reading more mind-blowing narratives like these.