Harris's Reviews > Only Stars Know the Meaning of Space: A Literary Mixtape

This was one of the most unique and clever books I've ever read (caveat: this book is not going to enjoyable for everyone. It requires a lot of attention, patience, and appreciation for bold choices in writing styles).

The metaphors come at the reader like a Vin Diesel movie franchise. I spent a lot time on each chapter for the B-side trying to figure out if there was an overlap with the main story being conducted on the A-side. It was tough because most of the chapters are written in the third person without any clear designation who the protagonist is. In fact, we don't learn Rambo's identity until quite late in his story.

Important note: the chapter titled "Tornado" is absolutely brilliant how Rambo's mind is whirling like a tornado and the text is shaped like a tornado.

B-side analysis (in chapter order):
Wicked (2) - focuses on a woman who pines after a man named, Salman. This is the only chapter that mentions Salman. Not clear if this woman is part of the A-side.
The Neighborhood Watch (4) - my favorite chapter in the book that follows five unhoused individuals and how they survive on a daily basis. I assume that the main character in this chapter, Elias, is also the character referenced in the next B-side chapter.
Important Terminology for Military-Age Males (6) - this was really clever and I didn't pick up on it until I went back and noticed that each subchapter here starts with a different letter of the alphabet ;it was quite subtle. As stated above, I suspect this chapter focuses on Elias.
Annus Horribilis (8) - I don't even know how to describe this other than a three page run on sentence with lots of parentheticals. I liked the non-traditional writing style exhibited here.
The Giver of Nicknames (10) - this was my second favorite chapter that follows one student who provides nicknames for four separate characters in his school named "Donovan." This chapter appears to have no connection to other chapters and predominantly focuses on the entitlement showered upon "Donnie Blanco" because his parents are incredibly wealthy.
The Other Guy (12) - another chapter that seems to have little connection to the others, but I could be wrong. This one focuses on a man who is cheated on and pretends like it doesn't bother him.
Seven Silences of the Heart (14) - this is the first obvious chapter that centers on Rambo, but told from the perspective of "Grief" which reminded me of the narrator in "The Book Thief." So not 100% original, but definitely different and effective.
Granddaughter of the Octopus (16) - this one seems to focus on Rambo's mother and the lessons she learned from her grandmother. Great wordplay with the title because the chapter begins with, "My grandmother always reminded me of Ursula, from the Disney version of The Little Mermaid" and like an octopus (with eight tentacles), her grandmother had eight sons by eight different men.
Nine Months Since Forever (18) - this was easy because it's also titled, "Cicero's Interlude," Cicero being one of Rambo's friends.
Only Stars Know the Meaning of Space (20) - this was easy too because it's also titled, "Love's Interlude," Love being the name or possible nickname of Rambo's most recent girlfriend.

This book was full of amazing descriptions. I couldn't possibly capture all of them, but here are my favorites:

"The ensuing female attention was crazy. You chewed through them like Pac-Man with three bonus lives, it's a miracle you didn't eat a ghost and die."

"You were no Ray Allen, and with your layup game shot to shit, you could keep the failing construction industry supplied with cheap bricks."

"The mere sight of golden apples sets you off. She detested them. She said they cheated her of the crunch they were supposed to make when they were bitten."

"She mourned the loss of the cassava connect who left the country because of paperwork issues. 'People think stricter immigration laws make borders safer, protect the labor pool, and keep criminals out,' she said, 'but they just make Jollof rice weaker.'"

"People's eyes can accept a man in tattered, browned, and dirty clothing, even in a store or a church. But a smelly man is despised everywhere."

"She said the universal 'okay' younger brothers use to piss off their older siblings. The 'okay' of 'Sure, whatever makes you feel better about yourself.' The 'okay' of 'This thing that matters so much to you is of no consequence to me.'"

"You can feel a vein growing in your forehead. The vein you get when a bad curry calls your midnight hotline."

"In the cursory contact of our eyes I understood the difference between an instant and a moment ... an instant is blinked away, forgotten so quickly it's barely registered, but a moment spills past its temporal occurrence - a moment has consequences."

"Books are easier to read than girls."

"'Why, Lindo,' I asked him, 'why can't I just have a Vanessa Carlton kinda girl?' 'Vanessa Carlton, dude?' 'Don't even play. VC is mad pretty - the original ride-or-die-walk-a-thousand-miles bad bitch.'"

"The other Caretakers and Lineker hoovered their pizzas and tagged themselves out of the ring, paying their bills, vanishing like genies after a third wish."

"Recently broken-up men should be treated like Chernobyl."

"I think it's the way he referred to her as the wife - in lowercase, like Nicole didn't command the respect of the Caps Lock button, even in speech."

"I deflected her questions this way and that. Serena, yo-yoing Sharapova at an Open, would've been proud of me."

"Any woman calling up such exes should know the facts as Charles Darwin found them on the Galapagos Islands: after a breakup, instead of going on a journey to the center of their hurt, they'll go around the world in eighty baes, avenging themselves upon everyone like they're the wounded counts of Monte Cristo."