re:mote voices

Title: Falling Out Of Cars
Author: Jeff Noon
Publisher:Black Swan

falling out of cars is the sixth novel by jeff noon, and is somewhat different from the others of his that i have read - which would mainly be made up of the vurt trilogy and automated alice. as usual noon puts his work in a distorted version of the UK, in the case of falling out of cars we have a near future where some sickness has spread across the world. through the noise and corruption of information marlene moore travels around in her car looking for fragments of a mirror along with a couple who have joined her because they think there may be money involved.

marlene is an ex-journalist and is trying her best to document/to keep track of what is going on, even if it is just so she can work it out for herself. the book is made up of the journal entries, ranging from half page notes to several page accounts. in this way the story unfolds, though in the process the deterioration of words and of marlene become clear. so that noon presents something which initially seems to make a certain amount of sense quickly become disorientating. spinning us in circles of hallucinogenic distortion and data rot. for some people this form will become irritating, falling out of cars will probably stop making any sense what so ever, however for others its a hypnotic descent. personally i read the book in big chunks, which probably helps in terms of enjoyment, allowing me to get more involved and rattling along.

after initial doubts about some of noon's work i find that i get more from each new book that i read. falling out of cars continues to increase my appreciation of his work, enough that with the realisation that i've never read needle in the groove i've just picked that last of his novels up to fill in the gap.