Anchor

In 2018 when I began writing Anchor, I was in a rented ground floor apartment in a century old complex in Italy, Bardonecchia. It had been a challenging year since releasing my first publication Beyond Absolute, as I was finishing my final year at the University of Essex, studying English Language & Linguistics. As well as working a full time role in administration for an obsolescing medium sized company. (the Beyond Absolute review can be found elsewhere on the OnlinebookClub). Nevertheless, I had brought along with me the story of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and I was proposing to my folks after reading the book, what life must be like to be unaware of the other persona? I sort of examined this premise and thought well ok, but what if it was a choice to remove an aspect of ones persona? So I developed a simplistic structure, which presents itself as the episodic chapter splits by day of the working week, Monday through to Friday, and through each of these days do we meet one of four protagonists: Evo Bingwall, Zuri Miakovic, Enzo Giovanni & Dr. Jacques Duboix. The final day returns to Enzo Giovanni's life, where we explore personality imperfection as the conclusion to Anchor's origination. The book is stylistically absurd to reflect the inaccuracies of typical conversations and memories, and how the mind frames them Dialogically. This is a term I use to describe time within the mind, which can appear to process huge conceptions of data stocks, and analyse them individualistically. So what we read is the dialogic reflection of present events as they happen, and what it is to hear inside the minds of these individuals, whom are chronologically and dialogically exploring the world around them, with unique insights and personal opinions, fostered by nothing more than their exposure to concurrent stimuli.The characters themselves are in a way mono-fractious in that their personality is deeply darkened by a one major aspect, I suppose as a way to macroscopicize focus. So that someone in these characters lives might describe them as an Overthinker, Addict, Personality Fake or Manipulator. All of these characters, except Dr. Jacques Duboix work for a company called BlackFin, which has a complex mixture of modern and outdated traits, one foot in and one foot out, as it were. This a comment on independent business traditionalism, and the inevitable cybernetic update, appearing to outmode the most experienced workers. I suppose this is more a plot device, and acts as a way to facilitate these characters habits and lives, and multi-angled interconnection. At first, when I finished writing Anchor, I believed the book was the exploration of perspective based personality traits. Now, I think it is a warts-and-all approach to explore the cosmetic cognitions of persona, and how these characters address them in their own ways, and rationalise them, to others and themselves. This is the nature of Anchor's arcing comments on persona, relationships, colleagues and choice. I suppose to ask if we ourselves anchor the persona of self to reality, to feel validated?Official Review: There are many long hard-to-read sentences, metaphors, and wordy passages. That's a matter of personal taste because I found the author's writing style, poetic and beautiful. Many people will find the book challenging to read, though. "Stylistically absurd to reflect the inaccuracies of typical conversations and memories," Anchor is simultaneously a work of art and an in-depth psychological analysis of the yearnings and fear of individuals in the contemporary world. All in all, Anchor deserves four out of four stars. The book is deep, smart, and thought-provoking. I recommend this to anyone above fourteen who loves psychological stuff. Besides, there is light sexual content in that's why it is inappropriate for anyone younger than 14.- L. Mueller