Wolf in White Van

this is my favorite book and john darnielle will go down as one of the great american writers. it’s difficult to describe the way wolf in white van makes me feel, but that’s apt given that it deals so heavily with some true things just being wordless and unexplainable. one thing it makes me feel is comfort - i’ve read some passages about remembering and reconciling trauma so many times they’re committed to memory now. the action that drives the story has all happened long ago at the time sean begins telling it, so we spend the novel listening to him draw the target around an arrow that’s been fired. it makes me ask questions about whether some things need to be given language to process them and give them meaning, or whether peace exists in letting them stay unintelligible, like a record playing backwards