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Enjoy this recent review of Book III of the critically acclaimed BEGINNER'S LUKE Series:

First off, what the heck is PORTRAITS OF AN IMAGINARY YOUNG MAN? Okay, it's a book–let's start simple. It's a story (still simple). But it's also a self-referential autobiography of a fictional character written by an imaginary author. Now we're getting closer … Not being used to writing reviews, I will concern myself not with the literary content of the BEGINNER'S LUKE Series, of which PORTRAITS is Book III of VI, but the subjective experience of reading it.


Having read postmodernist (God, I hate these pigeonholes) materials from Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk and more, I thought my mind would be quite prepared to take on this Series. Before starting, I was also quite convinced that I was sane. However …

Every chapter in the Series takes a less-trodden road than its parent chapter, and trust me, Chapter 1 of Book I is already WAY out there. The reader is taken on a fantasy magical mystery tour through the damaged (?) mind of a person who does not exist. Worst of all, it all makes sense, and on a very personal level. Hence I believed I was sane. The Series proves otherwise.

Fueled by the reader's cognitive dissonance, the fictitious author has created a tome which is in essence the cure to the disease it carries and transmits to the reader. The only way to process the information in any given chapter is to move on to the next, which DOES in fact heal the damage done–yet creates its own new damage to the reader's internal equilibrium which again is cured by the next chapter … ad infinitum (or at least to the end of the Series).

In short, the sweet, sweet madness of the BEGINNER'S LUKE Series proves that books are indeed better than needles–but only just!

LoKi Heimdall
Lisbon, Portugal