Simply one of the strangest books I've ever read. Beautifully written but also too beautifully written; artfully grotesque, not for the faint of heart, or those needing a handhold along the way. I suppose there are readers, better-versed in fantasy than me, for whom its pieces will simply click into place with obvious logic, but if so it's not a logic that comes from this solar system. I'm not prepared to say I fully get it, nor even that I fully liked it. But it's either unique or sui generis at a minimum, and as a work of passions -- life, death, love, hate, beauty, despair -- it's about as passionate as things can get. There's a familiar fantasy trope -- if you die in your dreams, do you die in real life? -- and IMHO this was written in response to the obvious but never-asked corollary question: if you live in your dreams, do you live in real life?

PALIMPSEST

I looked up the book reviews and it sounds interesting, but readers complained it had a lot of s*x in it.  I don't mind s*x in a book, but will not read p**n.  If the s** scenes are done tastefully I will enjoy the book, the writing style, the story and the concept.  If it is p*** or er***a, I will not read it.  

It is on my wishlist, I am curious.

what is s**, p*** or er***a? 

I forgot to say that I saw this word, palimpsest, used in a book for the first time just this week.  It was the book Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.

Sorry Pamela,

I write during my lunchbreak and our work computer firewalls block any kind of correspondence that has the word 'fantasy', weapons of violence (g*ns) and anything having to do with lustful body functions of the lower body half. 

I hope this clarified my post.

Of tasteful way there is no final word, so to each their own. In the case of Palimpsest I personally wouldn't describe it as even remotely explicit or graphic, but then I would not have described there being "a lot" of it either, even though it's a pivotal concept and event within the story. Sheer frequency seems a distant second to style and context, but then this is me, after all...

Thank you Vostromo, for the clarification.  As long as the scenes are not explicit, graphic or degrading I am totally fine.  I don't mind the fact that a book contains sexual or violent content, I read enough Stephen King and crime stories to not be undone by that, but I do mind it if sex is the only story and there are no other redeeming qualities to the book.

Actually I read a wonderful book that seems to be similar in description to Palimpsest, or how you described it. Haruki Murakami wrote 'Kafka on the Shore' and it is a wonderful novel, that blurs the line between dreams, fantasy and reality.  The language is pure prose, it discusses philosophy, psychology, music and art and has strange enigmatic characters with a good dose of sex, violence and humor.  I was totally taken in by it, one of my top favorite novels, and I am thrilled to know that there may be another enigmatic gem "Palimpsest" out there that waits to be discovered.

I'd be curious if anyone who reads Palimpsest finds it reminiscent, as I do, of the utterly unrelated (in style or manner) but wholly aligned (in underlying philosophy) The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis (equally challenging to actually read, let alone summarize).