These illustrations are the work of the precocious protagonist of the novel, T.S. The margins, comprising a full third of every page, are devoted to an assemblage of miscellany, from parenthetical musings by the narrator in prose through all kinds of maps, diagrams, drawings, and other visualizations, sometimes expanding and clarifying the main text, sometimes offering interjected arguments and philosophical musings. But if the plot of Larsen's novel is basic, its formal execution is surprising. We follow the voyage of twelve-year-old Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet as he travels from his Montana ranch home to Washington, D.C., where the Smithsonian Institution wants to give him a prize for the scientific illustrations he has drawn for them, under the implicit pretense of being not a prepubescent boy, but a grown man. On the level of story, to be sure, Larson's novel consists of a not too unusual coming-of-age narrative, with its journey of plot and character-changing experiences in adversity, away from home and hearth and family. Spivet to any page and you will be struck by the differences this book exhibits from most contemporary fiction. Open Reif Larsen's 2009 novel The Selected Works of T.S.
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