Desde hace tiempo no he leído un libro que me haya costado terminar. No he podido congeniar con ningún personaje. Las historias que desarrollan me han parecido muy lentas y a cada página que leía desconectaba. Menos importante, he encontrado fallos en la versión traducida de este libro.

I was at an ABA convention many years ago. Authors were situated at one end of the hall and there were long lines leading to many of them. One author was sitting with only a few people waiting to talk with him and get signatures. It was Steve Erickson. For some reason I decided to join that small line, where I picked up copies of his first two books. After reading them, I was a fan.

This first, in what I believe to be his Faulknerian novels, begins an exploration of themes and characters that recur in subsequent novels.. One character of vital importance to his novels is geography - most specifically Los Angeles. Love, lost films, water, and time - all interweave into a complex structure that leads the reader through an otherwise mundane story of love, unfaithfulness, and reconciliation. Surreal yet grounded; Days Between Stations is a most rewarding read. The first of several novels that create a mythical America working its way towards the millennium.

It's a specific book. Apocalypse of feelings, emotions and life... Maybe it's only my prejudice...

I can't really explain why I liked this book so much. Other reviewers have said that reading Erickson's work is like reading a dream which I suppose is a pretty accurate assessment. One of my favorite authors is Harukui Murakami and the experience of reading Erickson was very similar to that of reading Murakami (although I think this novel is much darker than any or Murakami's novels). Anyway, I will definitely be reading more...

This could have been a really good book but it wasn't. Instead it was just a confusing read. People seem to describe it "sensual" and "erotic"...nah. More like devoid of any real emotion or substance, coupled with odd male fantasies of playing with insentient dolls. The badly written sex scenes ruined it for me, they were so ridiculous and stupid to the point of not being even funny or entertaining. "He pulled her to him and it was only about ten minutes later, so fixed was she on the blue and the shutters and the sea, that she realized he was inside of her" ...yeah right. The characters were unconvincing and one-dimensional, I didn't like the style and frankly it was just stupid. There's also a ludicrous, somewhat disturbing rape-y scene that takes place outdoors during a sandstorm, which I think is supposed to come off as erotic and exciting, but it just sounds like an awful second rate rape fantasy. Stuff like this makes me too conscious of the writer and his motives and distracts from the plot. As a disclaimer, I like weird things but this was just rapey and felt unnecessarily stupid. I really would've liked to enjoy this book because all the other elements were there, so this was disappointing.

What is the importance of placing a memory? Why spend that much time trying to find the exact geographic and temporal latitudes and longitudes of the things we remember, when what’s urgent about a memory is its essence?

Ryan wrote: "There is a high level of purposeful vagueness throughout, as if this world contained only descriptions, never answers." Exactly. It was very frustrating, as I flew through the first 100 pages, only to realize this book was going nowhere. Which would be fine if it was at least entertaining, but it wasn't even this; just terribly contrived and horribly conceived.

Erickson is one of those polarizing authors whom I seem to love while other people are driven away. It's hard to deny the surreal, dreamlike quality of his stories; in fact, the best way for me to describe this book is to say that "it was like reading a dream". The world slowly disintegrates about the main characters. Cities fall inexplicably into ruin. Herds of white buffalo foretell vague portents. Time falls out of joint and a young couple falls apart.

I originally picked up this novel after nosing around Wikipedia for something different in terms of reading material. I hadn't heard of 'slipstream' before but I had read some Auster and Murakami and had enjoyed what I'd read. DBS just amazed me. I'm the kind of reader who can live or die by the emotional content of a book - does it move me or not? - and this book just totally wowed me in that respect.

May not be for all readers. Use as directed.

My favorite Erickson to date, and a better novel about cinema than Zeroville — but so much more than that.

35% film pynchon 65% abysmal love triangle. mostly just half-assed

Even though the intertwined stories were intriguing, I became fed up with all the rape and assault scenes, after which the women embraced the predator in a loving way. Lauren is at the center of multiple scenes like this and Janine also is the victim at the hands of Adolphe during the filming if the movie. Does Erickson think it's sexy or something? He writes them as if he doesn't realize that what's happening is completely non-consensual. In all instances, Lauren and and Janine are somehow completely unaware of their surroundings enough to not realize immediately that a penis is inside them. And this serves nothing to the plot. I stopped reading when again Michael just appears and starts having sex with Lauren but she doesn't realize what's happening. It's pretty gross and I don't recommend this book.

It took me 32 damn years to read this spare but dense and wonderful novel! After buying it a bookstore during my senior year of college — I chose it because of the cover, a cat (I had always thought it a panther, but it’s just a cat) sitting on a sand dune just in front of Los Angeles City Hall, with a strange bridge over to the side. Seemed interesting.

But that’s just the beginning of a dazzling, odd, lovely, lyrical book that branches into different stories, all of which are interconnected in some post-apocalyptic world that may be frozen over or swept away by sand — but creative passion and talent appear to be traits that NEVER DIE

Quite an experience. One to be savored and lingered over as long as possible!