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mkg97's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bundy23's review against another edition
3.0
The corpse stuff was cool but the back story bored me a bit as they weren't exactly likeable, or even interesting, people. It won me back towards the end as the daughter, despite being even less likeable than her parents, was at least interesting.
lazygal's review against another edition
2.0
Given the age of the book, I wondered if Christopher Nolan got the idea for the structure of "Momento" from Crace. We start with two dead bodies, Joseph and Celice, and what the last few moments of their lives were like (Celice's last half-minute, Joseph's last half-hour) following their murder by "persons unknown". From there we keep flashing backwards through their final day, their lives together and forwards to the decomposition of their bodies and the police discovery, as well as their daughter's arrival. That might sound confusing, but it's not: it's clear which timeline we're in and what's going on.
The writing is a little florrid, but it's also precise. What I mean is, there is detail that could have been excised but it's not detail for detail's sake. This is not a mystery, no detective looking for whodunnit or police investigation into the murder. Rather, it's an exploration of who Joseph and Celice were from their meeting through their deaths, and after.
The writing is a little florrid, but it's also precise. What I mean is, there is detail that could have been excised but it's not detail for detail's sake. This is not a mystery, no detective looking for whodunnit or police investigation into the murder. Rather, it's an exploration of who Joseph and Celice were from their meeting through their deaths, and after.
natsume00's review against another edition
3.0
This book ends with a quite ordinary conclusion for irreligious people including me. I wonder how religious people like this book.
I like the daughter's attitude.
I like the daughter's attitude.
tom58's review against another edition
4.0
Dark, poetic, haunting. Forensic descriptions of decomposing bodies is challenging but redeemed (just) by the poetry of the language and images.
kirstiecat's review against another edition
4.0
I want to say this novel is morbid but that's not entirely true. Instead, peculiar would be a more fitting word. First, it contains the longest description of decomposing bodies and the organisms that profit from it that I've ever read. It recalled the detailed and forever memorable rotting of Miss Havisham's neglected wedding feast only, you know, with human corpses.
Second, we start out with this married couple in midlife being dead and go backwards. We learn enough about these two zoologists-what they were like when they were young, how they met and became closer and everything inbetween. By the end of the book, we know infinitely more than we'd ever thought to want to know about the two that were killed off beginning on page 1. And yet, these are the main protagonists of the book and the more that you read, the more that you wish you could escape the inevitable fact that these two are not going to have any moments together anymore. It's as if being dead redeems them as characters because you grow attached and you even love them a little. All the while, the tragedy is accentuated. And in these 200 pages that escape, you find yourself slowly realizing ad you grow to love them that it might, in fact, be because they are no more. If they were alive, surely they would not be as interesting or as (ironically) vivid as they are now. They are preserved in a sense of tragedy that makes them intriguing.
Third, it's much less predictable than most fiction on this topic. Our two protagonists are dead from the start because of a rather brutal murder but instead of focusing on who did it and why, Crace instead tells us their story. In a way, that makes them less like victims and more like modern British tragic heroes. It's also what makes the story more interesting than a whodunnit or a why did it happen sort of novel. There's enough already written like that and not as many with this sort of angle.
Second, we start out with this married couple in midlife being dead and go backwards. We learn enough about these two zoologists-what they were like when they were young, how they met and became closer and everything inbetween. By the end of the book, we know infinitely more than we'd ever thought to want to know about the two that were killed off beginning on page 1. And yet, these are the main protagonists of the book and the more that you read, the more that you wish you could escape the inevitable fact that these two are not going to have any moments together anymore. It's as if being dead redeems them as characters because you grow attached and you even love them a little. All the while, the tragedy is accentuated. And in these 200 pages that escape, you find yourself slowly realizing ad you grow to love them that it might, in fact, be because they are no more. If they were alive, surely they would not be as interesting or as (ironically) vivid as they are now. They are preserved in a sense of tragedy that makes them intriguing.
Third, it's much less predictable than most fiction on this topic. Our two protagonists are dead from the start because of a rather brutal murder but instead of focusing on who did it and why, Crace instead tells us their story. In a way, that makes them less like victims and more like modern British tragic heroes. It's also what makes the story more interesting than a whodunnit or a why did it happen sort of novel. There's enough already written like that and not as many with this sort of angle.
bookpossum's review
5.0
This is an extraordinary book, and not for the squeamish.
Jim Crace starts the book with the murder of the two central characters and then describes what happens to their bodies as they lie in sand dunes for several days before being found. Every second chapter takes us away from this situation and examines their first meeting, aspects of their marriage and work, their difficult relationship with their daughter, and so on.
It is beautifully written and the literally forensic detail is always handled with respect and an admiration for natural processes. As the murdered couple are zoologists, the reader is left with the feeling that they might have been happier for their bodies never to have been found, but to have become a part of the dunes that hid them from the world.
It is powerful and done with such skill that the book never strays into gratuitous horror. I shall certainly seek out other books by Jim Crace.
Jim Crace starts the book with the murder of the two central characters and then describes what happens to their bodies as they lie in sand dunes for several days before being found. Every second chapter takes us away from this situation and examines their first meeting, aspects of their marriage and work, their difficult relationship with their daughter, and so on.
It is beautifully written and the literally forensic detail is always handled with respect and an admiration for natural processes. As the murdered couple are zoologists, the reader is left with the feeling that they might have been happier for their bodies never to have been found, but to have become a part of the dunes that hid them from the world.
It is powerful and done with such skill that the book never strays into gratuitous horror. I shall certainly seek out other books by Jim Crace.
davidwright's review against another edition
5.0
Crace is such an interesting author, with a distinct take on the world that is essentially natural. He came and spoke at our library touring Pesthouse, and had such a bracing intellect. This is a great introduction to his work.
theocbs's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0