Caractacus Smallcreep's Day

What Is His Purpose?

Review

I discovered Smallcreep's Day after listening to the album named after it and developed on themes of the book by Mike Rutherford (Of Genesis and Mike and the Mechanics). Worth digging up if you enjoy the book.

For years Smallcreep has made the same small machine part in his little part of the factory. One day, he finds he simply has to find out, Why? What is the end result, the thing that is made in the factory? What do the pieces he makes actually do?

And so he starts out to cross the vast Factory and find meaning in what he does. Thus begins a nightmare and a journey.

Really, the only way to describe the book is Kafkaesque, which doesn't much do it justice. It's more blatantly surreal than Kafka. More immersed in its self contained world. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the factory except the end product which allows for all sorts of madness in its creation as only madness can beget madness. The book does take a long while to get through as each madness holds no logic to what went before except to take it even further, however, the book builds to an unforgettable crescendo of terrifying prose as Smallcreep nears his destination and his final destiny.

As a journey of discovery it takes a while to build but the ending is worth it. As a satire on the modern industrial socety, it is almost pitch perfect.

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