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I finished the book The Angel's Game this morning after months of picking it up, starting it, getting about 100 pages in, then forgetting about it only to pick it up a few weeks later and start all over again. This is not to say it was a difficult book - far from it - I just wasn't engaged by it for the longest time. After finishing it, I still can't say with certainty whether I enjoyed it or not.
The particulars: the book is described as 'Gothic horror mystery;' it's about a pulp fiction author being contracted to write a book so moving, it becomes a religion unto itself!!!, so it is also a mediation on the act of writing and story crafting. That's a whole lot of pots going at once.
I can't say that it all comes together and works, because it doesn't, but it's a strange kind of failure. The various elements at work never become as compelling as they could, but they fail...on their own merits, so to speak; they don't interfere with each other, if that makes sense. The mystery at the heart of the novel is never truly resolved, and the revelations that do occur fall apart the more one considers them. The setting is undeniably, deliciously Gothic but for all the descriptions of crumbling cemeteries and pools of blood beneath the city and people burned alive there's never a strong sense of horror. I am not sure if something was lost in translation from Spanish to English, but basically...stuff happens, and despite the elegance of the prose I found it impossible for the dread of the situation to sink in.
There's also a requisite romantic subplot which ends up gaining more importance toward the end, which I found unexpectedly touching, even though it was not paticularly well developed and it ends in a very strange, almost...time paradoxical way. Guess I'm just a sucker for prettily-described, doomed romances.
So there's not a whole lot that is striking in this book (at least plotwise) but I can't say I disliked it - for all its flaws there are a lot of witty and beautiful lines. It's a very quotable book, if terribly melodramatic:
"A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price."
"The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction."
"Isabella, if you really want to devote yourself to writing, or at least to writing something others will read, you're going to have to get used to sometimes being ignored, insulted, and despised and to almost always being considered with indifference. It's an occupational hazard."
"I think you judge yourself too severely, a quality that always distinguishes people of true worth."
"Never underestimate a writer's vanity, especially that of a mediocre writer."
"Don Basilio was a forbidding-looking man with a bushy mustache who did not suffer fools and who subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency."
"The disease afflicting you has a name, and that is Grand Guignol: it does to drama what syphilis does to your privates. Getting it might be pleasurable, but from then on it's all downhill."
Decidedly overcooked and overthought, but I eat this kind of stuff up. And the book is peppered with these savory little phrases. They are really what make the book worth reading, more than anything else.
***
Been trying to figure out what to do with my Dreamwidth account I've been mulling over the idea of starting a community there - something like a "I love this book" or "I love this song!" sharing community, because I like talking about books and music and listening to others talk about books and music they like. I mean, I'm sure there are tons of communities on both LJ and DW that already have the same idea, but idk i want to create one anyway. ;o;
I don't suppose any of the LJ/DW ppl on my flist would be interested in participating in a book/music community? I think it'd be fun.
The particulars: the book is described as 'Gothic horror mystery;' it's about a pulp fiction author being contracted to write a book so moving, it becomes a religion unto itself!!!, so it is also a mediation on the act of writing and story crafting. That's a whole lot of pots going at once.
I can't say that it all comes together and works, because it doesn't, but it's a strange kind of failure. The various elements at work never become as compelling as they could, but they fail...on their own merits, so to speak; they don't interfere with each other, if that makes sense. The mystery at the heart of the novel is never truly resolved, and the revelations that do occur fall apart the more one considers them. The setting is undeniably, deliciously Gothic but for all the descriptions of crumbling cemeteries and pools of blood beneath the city and people burned alive there's never a strong sense of horror. I am not sure if something was lost in translation from Spanish to English, but basically...stuff happens, and despite the elegance of the prose I found it impossible for the dread of the situation to sink in.
There's also a requisite romantic subplot which ends up gaining more importance toward the end, which I found unexpectedly touching, even though it was not paticularly well developed and it ends in a very strange, almost...time paradoxical way. Guess I'm just a sucker for prettily-described, doomed romances.
So there's not a whole lot that is striking in this book (at least plotwise) but I can't say I disliked it - for all its flaws there are a lot of witty and beautiful lines. It's a very quotable book, if terribly melodramatic:
"A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price."
"The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him. The person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction."
"Isabella, if you really want to devote yourself to writing, or at least to writing something others will read, you're going to have to get used to sometimes being ignored, insulted, and despised and to almost always being considered with indifference. It's an occupational hazard."
"I think you judge yourself too severely, a quality that always distinguishes people of true worth."
"Never underestimate a writer's vanity, especially that of a mediocre writer."
"Don Basilio was a forbidding-looking man with a bushy mustache who did not suffer fools and who subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency."
"The disease afflicting you has a name, and that is Grand Guignol: it does to drama what syphilis does to your privates. Getting it might be pleasurable, but from then on it's all downhill."
Decidedly overcooked and overthought, but I eat this kind of stuff up. And the book is peppered with these savory little phrases. They are really what make the book worth reading, more than anything else.
Been trying to figure out what to do with my Dreamwidth account I've been mulling over the idea of starting a community there - something like a "I love this book" or "I love this song!" sharing community, because I like talking about books and music and listening to others talk about books and music they like. I mean, I'm sure there are tons of communities on both LJ and DW that already have the same idea, but idk i want to create one anyway. ;o;
I don't suppose any of the LJ/DW ppl on my flist would be interested in participating in a book/music community? I think it'd be fun.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 05:33 am (UTC)From:I don't read much written after 1960 and I only remember listening to soundtracks for the past few years. There's some great stuff there, but 95% of people I talk to aren't interested in those. I also don't do much in LJ other than post the occasional comment or rant. I need more fuuun because I hate school again.
I am reading this collection of the Grimms fairy tales and there are some interesting omitted tales that you wouldn't think to search for. Some are epic but some just don't work with today's ideas, but are worth looking at.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-24 02:35 am (UTC)From:And I went through a phase where ALL i was listening to was VG soundtracks. One of the reasons why I'd really like to make (or just join) a music sharing community is the fact that it's difficult these days to find music that is really...different. Even sites/apps like Pandora and Rhapsody are dedicated to finding music in genres you are already familiar with and like, and don't challenge you with stuff that falls outside your obvious preferences. Hearing someone gush about a song they really love at least piques your interest in listening to it...at least, that's how I feel. ^^
I don't remember most of Grimms' fairy tales but I really, really enjoyed The Little Mermaid. In my women's studies course
many many years agoI rewrote and illustrated that version of the tale for an assignment...because I am a dork.no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 02:45 pm (UTC)From:ALSO THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING TO DEFEAT THAT LAWN CHAIR IS HARD!
no subject
Date: 2010-10-24 02:41 am (UTC)From:IN LEFT 4 DEAD THE LAWN CHAIR IS GODLY
no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 10:36 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-10-24 02:53 am (UTC)From:re: reader analysis vs. author intent - I (usually) enjoy that aspect of criticism, that ability of a reader to draw their own meaning from a text that was not intended to be there by the author. But I find it irritating when critics start to throw around phrases like "Clearly the author was aware..." It smacks of pretentiousness and close-mindedness.