Comment

Apr 26, 2017
I read this book because I'm leading a book club discussion. I selected it for the reputation of the author and was sorely disappointed. The story swung from the inconsequential to the preposterous. The narrator recounted facts he could not possibly have been privy to and the author strained a literary device to the breaking point to try to to tell a story out of one of the characters' past, a Miss Lasqueti. It was a period of her life that had absolutely nothing to do with the story the author was trying to tell, and was completely unrelated to role she played in the climax of the book. It was an exercise in literary self-indulgence on the part of the author and a complete red herring. What I found most frustrating is that the narrator of the story barely acknowledged the fact that he was complicit in one man losing his job, a second being murdered, and a third escaping lawful custody. (Oops. Spoilers. Sorry, not sorry) In the end, I have to wonder why the author bothered to write this book at all, unless he had a contractual obligation to his publisher. My dislike for this book is indicative of why I generally shy away from fiction: the real stories of real people are infinitely more interesting than fictional ones.