Commentaires client les plus utiles
|
|
1.0étoiles sur 5
Conceited and disappointing, Déc 8 2007
It's hard to believe that this book was written by the same Felice Picano who wrote "Like People in History". And then again, given the storyline, perhaps it wasn't.
The rarefied academic atmosphere and clever posturing are irritating enough, but the writing is sloppy and the main character is more obnoxious than any real or fictional adult has any right to be. I can't help but wonder if Mr. Picano was playing the same kind of head game with his readers as his protagonists are playing with his narrator.
One example of what I'm calling sloppy writing: "...wave after wave of the most unceasing ardor". Call me a purist, but in my books, something can either cease or not cease; it cannot be "the most unceasing". That's a detail, but you tend to notice details when the whole feels like sitting through Modern Lit 101 all over again.
|
|
|
4.0étoiles sur 5
Stunning Writing Overcomes Ending, Fév 9 2004
Part literary mystery, part history lesson, Felice Picano's The Book of Lies, turned out to be a surprisingly engrossing read. Ross Ohrenstedt is a young, ambitious academic, teaching a summer literature course at UCLA while cataloging the papers and manuscripts of famous Purple Circle author, Damon Van Slyke. Van Slyke and his group of writer friends were the founders of modern gay literature, and, as such, subjects of much study. While sorting the papers, Ross runs across a mysterious manuscript written by an unknown writer. He sees an opportunity to make his name with his doctoral thesis, and begins to investigate the manuscript. As he talks to the surviving Purple Circle authors and the others' survivors, he finds more tantalizing fragments that seem to point to one man, forgotten by history, who may have been intimately linked to every Circle member. Who was that man? And who is attempting to keep Ross from finding the truth?Picano, author of 20 books, is in reality one of the founding members of modern gay literature. He was one of the members of the real-life gay literary salon, the Lavender Quill, a group that includes Andrew Holleran, Robert Ferro, Edmund White, and George Whitmore. Much of The Book of Lies was roughly based on his experiences in the Lavender Quill. Picano is a master at creating fascinating characters. Even secondary characters come complete with richly-detailed histories. His attention to detail serves especially well in recreating the gay society of the 60's and 70's in which members of the fictional Purple Circle (and assumedly, the real members of the Lavender Quill) lived and moved. Full of wit and humor, the dark tone of the ending caught me by surprise and, I have to admit, disappointed me somewhat. While it seemed to come from nowhere, he has laid the groundwork for his shocking dénouement all along if you know what to look for. Despite feeling somewhat cheated by the ending, I still admire the whole of the book and how masterfully Picano weaves the pieces together. He uses words powerfully, and I was especially moved by a section in a later chapter where one of the characters speaks with great eloquence about loss. I highly recommend this book.
|
|
|
5.0étoiles sur 5
A LOT OF TRUTH IN THE BOOK OF LIES, Jui 6 2003
I just finished THE BOOK OF LIES, and I've got to tell you, it is quite possibly the most intelligent novel I have ever read. I was absolutely blown away by this book. It is so unique compared to other works of gay fiction that I have read. The book concerns a young man working on his doctoral thesis about a group of writers known as the Purple Circle. I imagine that Picano's own involvement with the legendary Violet Quill Club provided some inspiration. I do not want to say too much, as this book is an incredible, thought provoking literary mystery, one that can truly only be solved by each reader. The time frame (by what I could figure out in the writing) seems to be 2006 or there abouts, thus providing some distance between the narrator's reality and ours the reader's. Anyway, I highly recommend it...
|
|
|
Commentaires client les plus récents
|
