I loved this ending. Clearly, he's not getting better overnight but it's a relief that he's made so much progress on recognising that the 'voices' aren't external physical realities, though the more I think about it, the more I realise they are 'real' - not real people, but really experienced. The scene with the viral video made me laugh till I cried. I wasn't expecting that. Of course they thought he was vegan. lol. Love it!
I'm so glad you loved it! It would be such a bummer for you to have spent the past ten months reading it in slo-mo only for it to fizzle out, haha. That was an interesting trick to consider, reaching a satisfying conclusion to the book while Alex is only seeing the first glimmers of what could be relief.
And you're right, there's a reality to the voices—their fingerprints are all over Alex. Whatever happens after this, he's been forever changed by these imagined encounters.
And yet, is ‘imagined encounters’ the right word, when imagination is generally under our control and scrutiny but these voices … well, I guess Alex learned to control them, arguably …
The beautiful thing about a book like this one is you can be evangelical about encouraging people to read it and your promotions go in the category of selfless public service! What made your book a draw for me was your openness that it was auto-fiction. I wanted to know what the experience was like, and it was reassuring to know you weren't imagining what you thought it might be like, but rather sharing what you knew it had been like. Thank you for your willingness to be vulnerable in the public space about something intensely personal, and precisely the sort of thing people aren't usually comfortable sharing.
I loved this ending. Clearly, he's not getting better overnight but it's a relief that he's made so much progress on recognising that the 'voices' aren't external physical realities, though the more I think about it, the more I realise they are 'real' - not real people, but really experienced. The scene with the viral video made me laugh till I cried. I wasn't expecting that. Of course they thought he was vegan. lol. Love it!
I'm so glad you loved it! It would be such a bummer for you to have spent the past ten months reading it in slo-mo only for it to fizzle out, haha. That was an interesting trick to consider, reaching a satisfying conclusion to the book while Alex is only seeing the first glimmers of what could be relief.
And you're right, there's a reality to the voices—their fingerprints are all over Alex. Whatever happens after this, he's been forever changed by these imagined encounters.
And yet, is ‘imagined encounters’ the right word, when imagination is generally under our control and scrutiny but these voices … well, I guess Alex learned to control them, arguably …
The beautiful thing about a book like this one is you can be evangelical about encouraging people to read it and your promotions go in the category of selfless public service! What made your book a draw for me was your openness that it was auto-fiction. I wanted to know what the experience was like, and it was reassuring to know you weren't imagining what you thought it might be like, but rather sharing what you knew it had been like. Thank you for your willingness to be vulnerable in the public space about something intensely personal, and precisely the sort of thing people aren't usually comfortable sharing.
Check out I Hear You Watching, folks!