Instead of a real story, it’s just the facts

Non-fiction

Reif Larson: self-conscious storytelling
Reif Larson: self-conscious storytelling

I Am Radar

By Reif Larson

Harvill Secker, €18.60

The first thing you encounter when you open Reif Larsen’s mammoth second novel is a “List of Figures”, which includes curiosities like “Miroslav’s Robotic Swan v2.1” and “A neutral current event, as observed in the Gargamelle bubble chamber”.

The last thing you encounter is a five-page bibliography that goes all the way from Antonin Artaud to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, via ...