After finishing The Mezzanine I am so confused about the passage of time. Although it is fairly obvious that most of the book is dwelt in memory, with Howie intensely scrutinizing every seemingly insignificant thing and making it matter but at the ending (at least for me) it felt like the entire book was just one loop. Howie starts by going to the escalators and riding them as he remembers all kind of things and ends when he gets to the top of an escalator. Yet the final chapter is only one paragraph, it does not feel like the true ending to the story, more like the Baker version of an epilogue. What feels like the true ending to me is the end of the second to last chapter, where Howie ate his cookie and milk, read the Aurelius book, ending when Howie goes to the escalators. Although this could be part of a “linear” story plot (I use quotes because I don’t know if the plot of The Mezzanine can really be called linear with the amount of tangents Baker goes, it is more like a tree) this passage seems to me like it should belong, in the timeline of the book, right before the beginning of the book, with a little bit of overlap as he already sees the escalators. This ending gives me the feeling of a circle, this could be symbolic given the circle of life, but considering every other part of this book that has no big ideas this circle of life theory is doubtful. I feel that it is more likely of two different options although I do not know which one it is. One, that the drone of a working life, even one of a man so childish as Howie is very monotone, so much so that it seems to repeat. The second possibility is that Baker literally wrote in a circle, with an ending almost at the same time as the beginning with no clear point of when the circle starting going back. This second option seems like something that Baker would do, as this is a book written to defy what people thought a book could be, this would complete The Mezzanine as one of the strangest books I have ever read.
I agree that the Aurelius passage (combined with Howie's panicked retreat to milk and cookies!) represents a kind of "climax" or culmination or "ending" of the real novel. The brief final chapter does have an obligatory feel: as if Baker is remembering that there's a "plot" that he needs to bring to an ending. I see what you're saying about the more "circular" structure of the book (like the stairs of the escalator that keep cycling around again and again), but there's also this "obligatory" forward/upward motion of the escalator, which gives an arbitrary structure to the narrative that is somewhat conventional (in that it progresses forward and upward). My favorite moment in that short last chapter is when Howie exchanges a chill wave with the maintenance guy--as if the maintenance guy is saying "bye" to us as readers!
ReplyDeleteI get where you are coming from with the fact that the last chapter doesn't seem like a "true" ending to the book. But I prefer it to having the end at the end of a long chapter. It feels fitting for this book, which has taken its entirety to focus on the smallest things, to have one last paragraph that covers all of what actually happens in the book which brings the reader back to reality.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea that The Mezzanine was written in a "circle" and I certainly think that it could be read this way. I feel like this loop would be very fitting for the book since there are so many time jumps in Howie's memories. I also think that essentially ending right before the book began would be a great way of further opposing the idea of transience which Howie dislikes so much.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point that the ending doesn't seem finished. I think that was kind of the point. You've reached the end. Now what? It's not like anything significant will change. It's like Howie meant for the ending to be predictable. His rambling observations will continue without end.
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