Title: Dark Matter
Author: Blake Crouch
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 352
Author: Blake Crouch
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 352
I don’t generally read science fiction, but the blurb on the
back of Dark Matter enticed me to make an exception. At its heart, this is a
love story, wrapped up in a solid plot that forces you to ponder on the
milestones in your own life.
Dark Matter talks about the theory that every thought we
have, every choice we make, creates a new world. However, like fish in a pond,
we remain oblivious to the complex reality that surrounds us.
Jason Dessen, his wife Daniela and teenage son Charlie are a
happy family. Jason teaches undergrad physics at a small college in Chicago while
Daniela teaches art to students. Both have made their family their priority,
giving up brilliant potential careers as an atomic physicist and artist to be
together.
Ryan Holder, Jason’s friend, has the professional and
monetary success that Jason chose not to have. Jason goes across to congratulate
Ryan at the local bar. While there, Ryan questions Jason’s choice. Upset, Jason
heads home, only to find himself held at gunpoint by an abductor and made to
drive to a location unknown to him.
There he is injected and he loses
consciousness. When he comes to, he is greeted by a group of unknown people,
who give him the impression that he is a very renowned scientist. He realizes that
he is the first one to return after 14 months away. He has no idea where he is
supposed to have returned from. That premise has us hooked.
Panicking, Jason escapes from the building of Velocity
Laboratories only to find out that his home is not his home, that Daniela is
not his wife, and that Charlie does not exist. Daniela is a famous artist
currently dating Ryan. She used to date Jason 15 years ago, but the
relationship ended when she became pregnant. On the other hand, he has won the
Pavia prize for devising something revolutionary.
Attempting to escape, he is caught and brought back. He pretends
to be who they think he is, anxious to go back to the world where he was a
happily married man, even if that world appears unreal.
Soon he learns that the Jason in this world has created a
box that leads you to the alternate realities spun off the choices that we make
in life. A box that is both horrifying and fascinating at the same time.
Jason and Amanda, the psychologist working for Velocity,
escape into the box. He is intent on returning to his own world, she on
escaping this one. They leave with 50 ampoules of a drug that allows the mind to
even conceive these alternate realities.
But which reality is more real? How can he prevent this
reality from engulfing him? How can he get back home?
The beauty of this book goes beyond the adventure it brings
to us, the story that holds us transfixed. The highlight is the possibilities
it conjures up before our eyes, of endless worlds, with versions of ourselves, all
in the same space and time.
The book kept me up late, way past my bedtime. And it wasn’t
only reading. Even in the dark, I stared at the ceiling, imagining myself with
Jason and Amanda, walking down that endless corridor, entering strange worlds
with versions of myself that were either slightly similar or totally different.
Each time I found my reading interrupted, I couldn’t wait to
resume where I had left off. The premise of the book reminded me of Frost’s “Two
Roads diverged in a wood, and I…”
The story comes to us in the first person point of view of
Jason. The use of the present tense gives us a sense of urgency and immediacy. On
the few occasions, the author shifts to third person, it serves as an
eye-opener for us.
The author succeeds in thrusting us in the midst of the
action, within no time at all. While the science fiction bits were interesting,
what I found most intriguing were the philosophical bits that tempered this
book. The worlds that Jason and Amanda conjure up exist, among an infinite
number of worlds, but they become accessible on account of their thoughts.
Truly, thoughts become things.
Throughout the book, Jason is desperately anxious to return home
to the world he knows, a world that is a grain of sand on a never ending beach. He describes Daniela as being an amazing wife and
mother, but I never got the feeling that she was awesome at her relationships. She
failed to impress me, either as an individual or on account of the intensity of
her filial relationships. Instead, it was Jason who came across as the most
amazing husband and father. I couldn’t understand why she evoked the kind of
passion she did.
The book raises questions, what if we are not as unique as
we are led to believe. If you strip away all the trappings of personality and
lifestyle, what are the core components that make me me? It also reminds us, Until everything topples, we have no idea what we actually have, how precariously
and perfectly it all hangs together.
I dutifully read the book, even the part about Schrodinger’s
Cat, which I couldn’t quite understand. At one point, the story got even more
freaky, but I’m not about to give out any more spoilers. At that point, I, for
one, was glad the story was in first person.
The style of writing was good. Some of the lines were really
short, staccato bursts that keep our pulse racing. One sentence I liked: Whole
Foods smells like the hippie I dated…a tincture of fresh produce, ground coffee
and essential oils.
I also loved his description of youth: There’s a
weightlessness that permeates everything because no damning choices have been
made, no paths committed to, and the road forking out ahead is pure, unlimited
potential.
Towards the end, the pace got tighter, and I found myself
wondering just how the author would resolve the problem. The end, when it came,
was a little hard to grapple with.
I just hope there’s a Book II.
(I read an ARC from First To Read.)
(I read an ARC from First To Read.)