As If
Grief is the engine of this surreal caper ... The novel’s alternating narrators keep things moving briskly, the limited perspective of one chapter delivering the comic payoff of the next ... Amid the dizzying back-and-forth, Waidner conceals a subtle exploration of midlife crisis.
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Amusing ambiguities are plentiful. The chapters alternate between Aubrey’s and Lindsey’s narrations and their voices are so similar that it is easy to mix them up; also, the androgynous character names raise the possibility of gender confusion. Often, the invocations of doubling and role swapping seem hypothetical. Much of the story is told in summary, leaving the comic possibilities of the premise unexploited.
Waidner’s tactic of switching selves...is wrenchingly funny and not a little poignant ... Waidner’s brand of anarchic dissonance and absurdist comic jolts buoy the novel along, even if the whole enterprise seems merely laughter in the dark.
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