This hypertext novel by Steve Ersinghaus won the Best of the Reading Room at the Hypertext ’07 convention in Manchester, England a few weeks ago. I’ve had access to The Life of Geronimo Sandoval for a month now and have stuck my nose here and there into it, just trying to accept the format. My natural instinct to something new is often stubborn resistance and though I’ve had some experience with the hypertext novel, I’m still torn about reading them–though I’m excited to the point of agitation sometimes in loving the idea of them and wanting to write in its orderly tangle of format.
From the opening:
Without a birth certificate and competent parents, how would a person verify their age or place of birth? If Ham Sandoval, the hero of The Life of Geronimo Sandoval, remembered a brother but couldn’t prove his existence, how could he rely on any memory of his past? Ham, as a boy, remembers his mentally ill mother returning to their home in Mesilla, New Mexico absent his brother, Geronimo. She vaguely remembers misplacing him.
Ersinghaus obviously knows the way to draw in his reader. How can one resist?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Well, i’m certainly feeling more than a bit sixth sensey right now. I’d not even have to change all the names.
If you miss a turn, do you resist going back?
Hah! You’d be a perfect reader for this, Anne. I usually don’t go backward since I tend to go in circles and will almost always revisit some scenes a few times before I boldly make a new trail.