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Reading Wednesday - on actual Wednesday!
Aug. 1st, 2018 04:06 pmWhat did you just finish?
The Year of the Snake by M.J. Trow and Maryanne Coleman. A murder mystery set in Ancient Rome. Calidus, a former slave, is convinced that his master Nerva, a Senator, was poisoned when he dies suddenly after attending a dinner party. Calidus's investigation takes him from the dregs of society, where he acquires a sidekick in "witty" pickpocket Piso, to the very top, with Emperor Nero and his mother Agrippina. Matters become more personal when Calidus encounters an old girlfriend, which causes trouble in his marriage.
This book is so bad, you guys. So bad. I don't even know where to start. Perhaps with how literally every female character spends the majority of her page time worrying about her physical attractiveness as compared to any other women nearby? They're constantly envying whoever's hot and pitying whoever's ugly with not a single other thought in their minds. It culminates in this absolutely thrilling exchange at the climax:
‘You absolute bitch, Julia,’ Poppaea sneered.
‘It takes one to know one, whore!’ Julia snapped.
Ah, great literature.
The writing in general is a mess. Characterization is incoherent, with problems arising and disappearing without logic; actions have no reasonable consequences (my particular favorite was when Calidus breaks into a senator's house at night, violently threatens him, tells him who he is, and then... nothing. The senator apparently never reports this or retaliates in any way); the point of view can't decide if it's omniscient or third person limited; and everything is obvious and dumb and unfunny. Another favorite example of mine: The other was Fabius Quintus, and he was a hard man to find. Calidus knew exactly where he was. They couldn't even wait one sentence to directly contradict themselves?
The plot timeline is awkwardly stretched and squashed, presumably because the authors wanted to include real historical events that had to take place on specific dates, but it does violent damage to the mystery. For example, we're told that Calidus is devoting so much time to his investigation that his infant daughter has almost forgotten who he is, and yet eight months after Nerva's death he hasn't interviewed more than two people. Even when he does get around to speaking to others, he's still only asking them basic matters like where they sat and what they spoke about at the fatal dinner party, nearly a year after it happened. Who would remember details like that? And who cares? It's hard to believe Calidus is so devoted to his master's memory, as we're repeatedly told he is, when he see him doing so little and so slowly.
Another thing that bothered me was that the characters constantly make modern allusions, from Robert Frost ("Well, it’s late. And I have miles to go before I sleep.") to Baskin Robins ("The Augusta is not exactly the flavour of the month at the moment.") to government security (‘You misunderstand me, sir,’ Calidus said. ‘I merely wanted a guest list for the meal in question.’ / ‘Classified,’ Gellius snorted. ‘I’m a senator, for Jupiter’s sake; I can’t go around giving out that sort of information.’). Which I suppose could be fun, if the authors were deliberately trying for an anachronistic postmodern feel, but here it just flops. It's particularly striking because they otherwise seem so eager to show off their research credentials! Among the many Latin terms they namedrop without explanation are "subigaculum" and "Falernian"; those respectively are a sort of loincloth and a particularly famous kind of wine, but if you don't come to the book with that knowledge in hand, the authors aren't going to help you.
Anyway, this is an awful book – terrible writing, uninteresting characters, incoherent plot – with no redeeming characteristics, and I hope to save anyone from wasting time on it.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Yes, I have finally read this book, years after everyone else. In case you have somehow also not read it: it's the lightly fictionalized story of Thomas Cromwell, who rose to power in London as King Henry VIII's right hand man. Along the way he served a Cardinal, antagonized Thomas More (who was eventually put to death for treason for refusing to acknowledge Henry as the head of the Church of England), and, most famously, helped dethrone Katherine of Aragon to put Anne Boleyn in her place.
There are many, many novels out there about Tudor England, and this is... one of them. I can't say it's the best, because while I enjoyed it well enough, it felt a bit forgettable to me, a bit surprising that it should have gotten so much attention and won so many awards. It is, I suppose, more literary in style than the average historical fiction, but present tense and an initially opaque approach aren't enough to overthrow a genre.
Which is not to say I didn't like it! I did. I particularly liked how, unlike most novels of the Tudor Court, politics and who Henry's currently sleeping with aren't the main drivers of the plot. Cromwell's narrative is dominated by the lives of his children, redecorating his house, going to dinner with co-workers he doesn't like, how to import cloth, memories of his time in Italy, and all the other detritus of everyday life. We, the readers, know that what "really" matters is Katherine vs Anne, Luther vs the Pope, but to Cromwell these matters are just one of many he's dealing with, and he has no suspicion of how they'll come to be marked as Important Historical Events. Which, of course, no one at the time would have. But you see this approach so rarely in historical fiction that I found it a refreshing change. Cromwell doesn't see himself as joining a Protestant Revolution, but just as having reasonable disagreements with fellow believers about what is moral or faithful.
It's a well-written book about an interesting time period, and if you like literary fiction or The Tudors you'll probably like this. But I don't think it's the greatest British novel of the decade.
What are you currently reading?
Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn. A wonderful mix of neat facts and horrifying "jesus christ, what lives in my showerhead??"!
The Year of the Snake by M.J. Trow and Maryanne Coleman. A murder mystery set in Ancient Rome. Calidus, a former slave, is convinced that his master Nerva, a Senator, was poisoned when he dies suddenly after attending a dinner party. Calidus's investigation takes him from the dregs of society, where he acquires a sidekick in "witty" pickpocket Piso, to the very top, with Emperor Nero and his mother Agrippina. Matters become more personal when Calidus encounters an old girlfriend, which causes trouble in his marriage.
This book is so bad, you guys. So bad. I don't even know where to start. Perhaps with how literally every female character spends the majority of her page time worrying about her physical attractiveness as compared to any other women nearby? They're constantly envying whoever's hot and pitying whoever's ugly with not a single other thought in their minds. It culminates in this absolutely thrilling exchange at the climax:
‘You absolute bitch, Julia,’ Poppaea sneered.
‘It takes one to know one, whore!’ Julia snapped.
Ah, great literature.
The writing in general is a mess. Characterization is incoherent, with problems arising and disappearing without logic; actions have no reasonable consequences (my particular favorite was when Calidus breaks into a senator's house at night, violently threatens him, tells him who he is, and then... nothing. The senator apparently never reports this or retaliates in any way); the point of view can't decide if it's omniscient or third person limited; and everything is obvious and dumb and unfunny. Another favorite example of mine: The other was Fabius Quintus, and he was a hard man to find. Calidus knew exactly where he was. They couldn't even wait one sentence to directly contradict themselves?
The plot timeline is awkwardly stretched and squashed, presumably because the authors wanted to include real historical events that had to take place on specific dates, but it does violent damage to the mystery. For example, we're told that Calidus is devoting so much time to his investigation that his infant daughter has almost forgotten who he is, and yet eight months after Nerva's death he hasn't interviewed more than two people. Even when he does get around to speaking to others, he's still only asking them basic matters like where they sat and what they spoke about at the fatal dinner party, nearly a year after it happened. Who would remember details like that? And who cares? It's hard to believe Calidus is so devoted to his master's memory, as we're repeatedly told he is, when he see him doing so little and so slowly.
Another thing that bothered me was that the characters constantly make modern allusions, from Robert Frost ("Well, it’s late. And I have miles to go before I sleep.") to Baskin Robins ("The Augusta is not exactly the flavour of the month at the moment.") to government security (‘You misunderstand me, sir,’ Calidus said. ‘I merely wanted a guest list for the meal in question.’ / ‘Classified,’ Gellius snorted. ‘I’m a senator, for Jupiter’s sake; I can’t go around giving out that sort of information.’). Which I suppose could be fun, if the authors were deliberately trying for an anachronistic postmodern feel, but here it just flops. It's particularly striking because they otherwise seem so eager to show off their research credentials! Among the many Latin terms they namedrop without explanation are "subigaculum" and "Falernian"; those respectively are a sort of loincloth and a particularly famous kind of wine, but if you don't come to the book with that knowledge in hand, the authors aren't going to help you.
Anyway, this is an awful book – terrible writing, uninteresting characters, incoherent plot – with no redeeming characteristics, and I hope to save anyone from wasting time on it.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Yes, I have finally read this book, years after everyone else. In case you have somehow also not read it: it's the lightly fictionalized story of Thomas Cromwell, who rose to power in London as King Henry VIII's right hand man. Along the way he served a Cardinal, antagonized Thomas More (who was eventually put to death for treason for refusing to acknowledge Henry as the head of the Church of England), and, most famously, helped dethrone Katherine of Aragon to put Anne Boleyn in her place.
There are many, many novels out there about Tudor England, and this is... one of them. I can't say it's the best, because while I enjoyed it well enough, it felt a bit forgettable to me, a bit surprising that it should have gotten so much attention and won so many awards. It is, I suppose, more literary in style than the average historical fiction, but present tense and an initially opaque approach aren't enough to overthrow a genre.
Which is not to say I didn't like it! I did. I particularly liked how, unlike most novels of the Tudor Court, politics and who Henry's currently sleeping with aren't the main drivers of the plot. Cromwell's narrative is dominated by the lives of his children, redecorating his house, going to dinner with co-workers he doesn't like, how to import cloth, memories of his time in Italy, and all the other detritus of everyday life. We, the readers, know that what "really" matters is Katherine vs Anne, Luther vs the Pope, but to Cromwell these matters are just one of many he's dealing with, and he has no suspicion of how they'll come to be marked as Important Historical Events. Which, of course, no one at the time would have. But you see this approach so rarely in historical fiction that I found it a refreshing change. Cromwell doesn't see himself as joining a Protestant Revolution, but just as having reasonable disagreements with fellow believers about what is moral or faithful.
It's a well-written book about an interesting time period, and if you like literary fiction or The Tudors you'll probably like this. But I don't think it's the greatest British novel of the decade.
What are you currently reading?
Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn. A wonderful mix of neat facts and horrifying "jesus christ, what lives in my showerhead??"!
