Saturday, August 04, 2007

No Sparks

#39 - The Immaculate Conception, by Gaetan Soucy
Finished 8/4/07
Rating: 3/5
Total Pages: 320
Reason for Reading: CanLitReaders
REVIEW: I do not deny that Soucy is a masterful writer and that he knows how to weave a twisted tale of horrifying events and even more horrifying consequences. I remember reading his The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches two or three years ago, and feeling assaulted by the language and the subject matter. The Immaculate Conception continues with the theme of matches and fire, but the sparks didn’t work for me this time. The main focus of the story, Remouald and his father Seraphon, are fascinating and detailed characters that drew me in for the first half of the book. But somewhere midway the novel fractured into multiple storylines that seemed only loosely connected to the main plot. The result, for me, was nothing more than a myriad of distractions from what I really wanted to know – the story of Remouald and Seraphon. I ended the book feeling frustrated and annoyed. I had spent too much time trying to understand how the divergent storylines connected, and not enough time paying attention to the only one that I liked.

Listening to: Hyaline (Human Mesh Dance), on iTunes Space Station Soma.
Annoyed at: Others' loud music competing for my listening space.

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