What Makes The Mezzanine's Writing Style Unique?
Image of a man riding an escalator. Found here and cited below. In class we have established that Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine hosts unique prose, but what exactly about his writing style is so distinctive that we must question its viability as a novel? While there are many eccentricities in his book, I think his unusual use of plot, theme, descriptions, footnotes, and thought quantification makes his writing so unparalleled. One of Baker’s most distinctive stylistic choices is his use of footnotes. These are not mere annotations but integral parts of the narrative that expand on and complicate the text. For example, Howie takes three pages worth of footnotes to reflect on grooves in escalators, ice skates, and record players before returning back to trends in shoe laces (Baker 66-68). His use of footnotes represent the nonlinear digression of thoughts in a way no other book has before him. Speaking of, Baker's use of footnotes contributes to a non-traditional plot. While ...