Let me preface this by saying I'm a huge fan of the Author's Ella Minnow Pea. Due to the middling reviews on this book I very nearly removed it from my list. I'm so glad I didn't.

But, you might say, you only gave it 3 stars. True. Let me explain.

Dunn's creative concept is this: to tell a story completely in footnotes. He succeeds... partly. Is the story told? Yes. Did he effectively spoof historical works? Absolutely. Are some good laughs had along the way? Sure.

However, just like I would any historical notes section, I skimmed the majority of the text. Either that is a sign of it's brilliance or it is a sign of it's failure to create content that is intriguing. I, pessimistically, chose the latter because I would prefer not to read it again. ( )

A gimmick novel, but the gimmick is pretty amusing. ( )

I have been looking forward to reading Ibid: A Life by Mark Dunn. It is the imaginative biography of Jonathan Blashette, a three-legged man. After opening with several letters between the author, his editor, and his brother, that explain what happened to the actual manuscript, the entire story consists of the endnotes (the use of "footnotes" is obviously a pun) to the missing fictional biography.

I found Ibid hilarious, and really did laugh out loud several times. It tackles, tongue in cheek, the addition of all sorts of real historical references while obliquely telling Jonathan Blashette's life story by inference, through endnotes. Using real historical references and people to tell the story made Ibid even more successful and accessible for me. Most of the endnotes themselves are quite funny.

While telling a story through endnotes seems like it might be awkward, I thought it really flowed smoother than most of my experiences in reading endnotes and was a fresh take on another way to tell a story. The fact that many of the footnotes were long and rambling segues added to the humor.

My one suggestion would have been to make some of the endnotes more closely resemble those you see in other biographies. Often biographers will discuss the problems with previous biographies or mention discrepancies between them - but that's a minor quibble. All in all, I really quite enjoyed Dunn's Ibid, although I also know it will not be a good choice for everyone.
very highly recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
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It is an interesting concept for a book and has many amusing moments - but overall - interesting peripheal people who hook up with the main character through events in the 20th century and really do not much of anything. Forest Gump meets Jerry Seinfeld (without the charm of either). Not high on my list of recommendations.
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HAHAH! This was amazing. I LOVED Ella Minnow Pea, and this was not a disappointing second read. ( )