Teeth and Time

What could one fathom, if only in a Hong Kong action film? I have finished the first chapter of Powell's second novel in the Dance of Time series; the chapter was 100 pages long. It contains, as noted earlier, a fantastic potrait of an artist and then gives way to a crush, a dinner party and then three coincidences.

One of my issues with Dickens was this funneled universe where like Dostoevsky he dumped his characters, speed-dialling them into improbable encounters. I feared that Nabokov had lost something precious when the accident in Lolita takes away Dolores' madre. Perhaps wonky Pynchon has adquately grabbed the concept. Perhaps, it is all connected.

I am fearful of my inner Augie March. I suspect I will be taking Robert Fisk along with the Powell to Chicago. I am not returning to the Leader until I finish this volume.