“The Antiquarian is a personage cloistered in a tower of books and sun-faded bundles of paper, ever a stranger to the world around him.”
The first thing
that struck me about this novel is the savage beauty of the words on the page.
There is something otherworldly and amazing about the way it is written and I
wonder whether that reflects the native novel or can be, in part perhaps,
attributable to the work of the translator. In a similar vein, this novel is
chock full of violence and death and darkness and yet it retains this air of seductive mystery which draws you into its dreamlike pages.
The quote I've posted above really struck a chord, it reminded me of being lost in a sea of books to lock out the real life horrors of the world, and if you watch the news there are more and more each day.
On a more positive note, it is a rare work that really surprises. I had no idea where this was going and the combination of madness and suspense is intoxicating for the reader. Plot wise however, the novel did not fully imprint on my memory - perhaps a re-read is in order.
4 out of 5 psychiatric wards contain nutters.
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