The Wild Sheep Chase

I loved The Wild Sheep Chase. First off, the writing was great. I have a feeling the author is also a poet. I especially liked a sentence on page 153 where the main character repeats the word took four times in one sentence. He even replaces the word look with took an saying "I took a long took," which I thought was really neat. I also really liked, though I didn't fully notice it till maybe half way through, that the characters don't have names. The only actual name in the whole book is Kipper, the name the chauffeur gives to the cat. The lack of names shows a similarity between main character and author in that the main character says he hasn't named the cat because he doesn't really like names, and the author shows his dislike for names by not using them.

When I first started the book I read the first two chapters and was wholly depressed. However, the next chapter introduced the main character's new girlfriend who he falls for because of her beautiful ears. She really lightened up the mood. From there the book took off as the wild sheep chase began.

I loved the ending. When he arrives at the Rat's house, wakes up to find his girlfriend gone, and quits smoking, I really felt the suspense building. I found the next ten days spent in the house to be the slowest part of the book and for good reason, it really allowed for creepy feelings to start growing and set an insatiable need to know what the hell was going on inside me. When the truth finally came out I was happily floored. I really liked that the Rat was two ghosts though I didn't quite understand how the Sheepman could have buried the Rat since they are the same person and are both ghosts. But then again the Rat was able to fetch beers as a ghost, so maybe ghosts can bury people too.