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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
decussate
qui vive
sine die
afflatus
fan-tan
musette
puttee
estivate
panatela
yegg
festinate
sessile
talus
leptorrhine
ramify
windrow
qui vive
sine die
afflatus
fan-tan
musette
puttee
estivate
panatela
yegg
festinate
sessile
talus
leptorrhine
ramify
windrow
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Entertaining and rather charming, a notch above Gringos and a notch below True Grit in my Charles Portis books I've read power rank.
it’s really not that funny idk. maybe my expectations were too high.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A young man trades three packs of cigarettes for a book he believes contains the ancient wisdom of Atlantis. He starts a secret society and convinces other misfits to join. Absurd and funny. Laughed out loud a couple times. I liked it.
fast-paced
If God Bless You Mr. Rosewater is my favorite Vonnegut novel, this is more than likely going to prove my favorite Portis novel.
It's like Kurt Vonnegut's The DaVinci Code.
There is something distinctly American, even Trumpian, about this book. It is the history of an esoteric order and fraternal society, with grandiose ambitions both metaphysical and mundane. Except that it is also a story of a series of con men, each who eventually turns mark, and not merely to others but themselves as each starts buying into their own hokum. That sort of infectious grandiosity and its rise and fall is the essence of the book. The mysterium itself is secondary, except that it feels like any other project or corporation or organization that starts with boundless energy but becomes a total fiasco. Though, if you do know anything about the topic, you will see plenty in good parody.
It is funny throughout, but a dry satire and so arch that you could run a coal train across it. As such, it resembles the texts that itself parodies, in how the surface reading is rarely the best bit. That is an amazing feat on the part of the author, but kinda tiring to read. It is like watching Andy Kaufman or Graham Chapman, comedians who can hold to a premise so forcefully as to become unsettling. That makes it difficult to asses, in the sense that is a one star and a five star book, basically on the hinge of the reader's temperament. And in comparison to other sorts of similar American humor, like Twain or as noted Vonnegut, this one maybe loses some points for being too much in its own ass. But if it's the kind of thing that you like, it's going to be the kind of thing that you like.
There is something distinctly American, even Trumpian, about this book. It is the history of an esoteric order and fraternal society, with grandiose ambitions both metaphysical and mundane. Except that it is also a story of a series of con men, each who eventually turns mark, and not merely to others but themselves as each starts buying into their own hokum. That sort of infectious grandiosity and its rise and fall is the essence of the book. The mysterium itself is secondary, except that it feels like any other project or corporation or organization that starts with boundless energy but becomes a total fiasco. Though, if you do know anything about the topic, you will see plenty in good parody.
It is funny throughout, but a dry satire and so arch that you could run a coal train across it. As such, it resembles the texts that itself parodies, in how the surface reading is rarely the best bit. That is an amazing feat on the part of the author, but kinda tiring to read. It is like watching Andy Kaufman or Graham Chapman, comedians who can hold to a premise so forcefully as to become unsettling. That makes it difficult to asses, in the sense that is a one star and a five star book, basically on the hinge of the reader's temperament. And in comparison to other sorts of similar American humor, like Twain or as noted Vonnegut, this one maybe loses some points for being too much in its own ass. But if it's the kind of thing that you like, it's going to be the kind of thing that you like.
I really enjoyed "The Dog Of The South", but this is even better. Either I've read this book totally wrong, or "Masters Of Atlantis" is the best novel on religious organizations since "Elmer Gantry". And I mean that as a compliment towards religion. The Austin Popper chapters, especially his days in Rocky Mountain exile and his final confrontation with those who would shut him up, are especially good.