Reviews - The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

139 reviews for:

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

M. John Harrison

3.31 AVERAGE

lamnatos's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

shrimpatico's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not my favourite M. John Harrison novel.

Harrison demonstrates, as always, a remarkable facility with language, and a very particular way of conceptualising the landscape and the people that inhabit it. All the same, I was left with the sense that nothing here is really new. It's all the same old kind of strangeness - and make no mistake, the novel is very strange. Generally I'd consider that a compliment, but in this case the strangeness neither deepens nor resolves; like its two protagonists (if that term applies) the novel never really goes anywhere for all its wandering. The 'action' is viewed obliquely and at a distance, where it's seen at all, always just out of frame; the protagonists watch it pass away from them, uncomprehending, or if they make an effort at pursuit they fall off, fail, turn back and avert their eyes, unable even to mention it aloud. The atmosphere and general grotty moodiness of the writing was compelling for a while, but I admit I found myself clock-watching towards the end.

As a whole: grimy, damp, decaying. Dislocating. Unsettled. Ultimately (perhaps deliberately?) unsatisfying.