Doddsey

I found this read fascinating, we are pulled into the unfolding event very quickly with its literary devices of cold fear and darkness. The protagonist makes some unbelievably unwise decisions to traverse into the forest and we are never quite sure why as in our own minds, it surely is illogical to carry on walking into the dark. A Shining to me had a dream like quality. Rhythmic and repetitive it is almost musical in its back and forth prose. You are willing the storyteller to go back and survive but at the same time question the decisions that he makes or are they his decisions as he suddenly has bare feet but can't remember taking his shoes off. The reader is entranced by the shining light, the presence. The repetitions of the prose, the cold snow and the darkness, and quite crushing fatigue that is felt by the person in the forest, and then suddenly he 'feels' that he is seeing his parents, but its not an ordinary encounter as there are no emotional greetings, just a feeling as if they have all been in the cold dark forest for a long time. There is also no sense of time as the back and forth prose retreats into the past, where he left his car and then into the present again. It had the effect of making me feel giddy but this wasn't unpleasant but perhaps meditative because I had to keep reading. I'm not sure about the present then retreating shining light and I would imagine this could be acknowledged by some as a faith? However....it is the bait by which the tale hangs.