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bibliobethreads's review against another edition
3.0
Three and a half stars from me!
First of all, thank you so much to Sceptre publishers, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton for sending me a copy of this intriguing novel in exchange for an honest review. I finished this book a couple of days ago and to be perfectly honest, I'm still trying to collect my thoughts to write a coherent review about it! I've only previously read Glow by Ned Beauman which I did a mini pin-it review about HERE and I have to admit I wasn't blown away, so I was interested to read something else by him as it's perfectly obvious that his writing is stunning. Even now, I'm struggling to rate Madness Is Better Than Defeat - some parts confused the hell out of me and I felt like I had to concentrate and be completely immersed in the story without distractions, other parts were utter brilliance.
It's also such a tough book to describe! The synopsis above pretty much says it all, two rival expeditions are sent into the jungle to an ancient Mayan temple for two completely different reasons. One expedition wants to tear the temple down and take it to New York, the other expedition wants to film a movie there so requires the temple to be fully intact. As soon as the rival teams meet each other, of course there are fireworks aplenty. It ends up with the two groups at stalemate, each refusing to submit and each person in the team refusing to leave the jungle. They end up spending their lives out there (we're talking DECADES) - foraging for food, fighting between themselves and even making babies. However, the temple and what it holds within its walls is stranger and more bizarre than anybody could have imagined and as the jungle dwellers begin to succumb to a strange madness, there are people on the outside in New York with their own agenda for the temple who will stop at nothing to get what they desire.
A lot of this book doesn't make any sense at all but in a way, that's part of its charm and quirkiness. In the very first pages we are treated to a scene where a man is betting on who will win in a fight between an octopus and a diver (yes, you read that right!) and throughout the novel, we get some wonderful, snarky humour from Ned Beauman that really lifted the slower parts of the narrative for me. Some might call this book a bit of a slog and at times, I did feel that I must admit. It jumps around perspective wise and sometimes it can take a minute to get your head around which character you're hearing from - and there are a lot, believe me. There was a huge variety in characters and they all seemed very well rounded, even those we hear from just briefly but at times, I did feel like I didn't have a clue what was going on and it was a bit too much. However, I have to say that even at a particularly slow part, I never felt like I wanted to give up on the novel. I did want to see it through to the end, even if I finished it wondering just what on earth happened?! This novel might not be for everyone but if you fancy a unique read that's refreshingly different from everything else out there at the moment, I would recommend Ned Beauman.
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
First of all, thank you so much to Sceptre publishers, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton for sending me a copy of this intriguing novel in exchange for an honest review. I finished this book a couple of days ago and to be perfectly honest, I'm still trying to collect my thoughts to write a coherent review about it! I've only previously read Glow by Ned Beauman which I did a mini pin-it review about HERE and I have to admit I wasn't blown away, so I was interested to read something else by him as it's perfectly obvious that his writing is stunning. Even now, I'm struggling to rate Madness Is Better Than Defeat - some parts confused the hell out of me and I felt like I had to concentrate and be completely immersed in the story without distractions, other parts were utter brilliance.
It's also such a tough book to describe! The synopsis above pretty much says it all, two rival expeditions are sent into the jungle to an ancient Mayan temple for two completely different reasons. One expedition wants to tear the temple down and take it to New York, the other expedition wants to film a movie there so requires the temple to be fully intact. As soon as the rival teams meet each other, of course there are fireworks aplenty. It ends up with the two groups at stalemate, each refusing to submit and each person in the team refusing to leave the jungle. They end up spending their lives out there (we're talking DECADES) - foraging for food, fighting between themselves and even making babies. However, the temple and what it holds within its walls is stranger and more bizarre than anybody could have imagined and as the jungle dwellers begin to succumb to a strange madness, there are people on the outside in New York with their own agenda for the temple who will stop at nothing to get what they desire.
A lot of this book doesn't make any sense at all but in a way, that's part of its charm and quirkiness. In the very first pages we are treated to a scene where a man is betting on who will win in a fight between an octopus and a diver (yes, you read that right!) and throughout the novel, we get some wonderful, snarky humour from Ned Beauman that really lifted the slower parts of the narrative for me. Some might call this book a bit of a slog and at times, I did feel that I must admit. It jumps around perspective wise and sometimes it can take a minute to get your head around which character you're hearing from - and there are a lot, believe me. There was a huge variety in characters and they all seemed very well rounded, even those we hear from just briefly but at times, I did feel like I didn't have a clue what was going on and it was a bit too much. However, I have to say that even at a particularly slow part, I never felt like I wanted to give up on the novel. I did want to see it through to the end, even if I finished it wondering just what on earth happened?! This novel might not be for everyone but if you fancy a unique read that's refreshingly different from everything else out there at the moment, I would recommend Ned Beauman.
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
jossarian4's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know what to say about Madness is Better than Defeat, other than I felt mad reading it. I'm really torn; I wanted so desperately to love it, and I did love some of it, but for the most part the story focused on the aspects of itself that weren't the most interesting - the civil war in the jungle stops being the focus and the book begins to drag. I would give this book 3.5 stars if I could, but I think I must round down; definitely worth a read, but only if you're ready to brave the slog for the gems within. Fun read, when it's a fun read.
mcdal's review against another edition
I got second hand embarrassment watching this author carry on as if he were the cleverest boy in his writing class for 400 pages. Imagine that: having 400 pages to write a story and saying absolutely nothing of value. It’s almost impressive, but my amusement for this utter failure dimmed with the constant use of rape and antisemitism as a plot device. In the end, this book is yet another example of a male writer thinking he’s doing satire when really he’s just doing the thing he’s satirizing with an exaggerated accent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Misogyny, Incest, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, and Rape
trickeyjoe's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
anlekaha's review against another edition
3.0
Crazy fun. It just went on a bit long and I didn't love the ending.
unsquare's review against another edition
5.0
Ned Beauman is a fascinating author. I love his books, but I just couldn’t get into Boxer, Beetle for some reason, even though it has a similar feel to both this and The Teleportation Accident.
Beauman seems to alternate between madcap ensemble pieces and solo adventures, all populated with weirdos and scumbags. Madness is Better than Defeat is an ensemble piece with a generous helping of metafiction thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.
It’s a novel about an investigation into a failed expedition to make a movie about a failed expedition, and the layers of self-reference only increase from there.
Considering Beauman’s batting average so far, I’ll probably give Boxer, Beetle another chance some day.
Beauman seems to alternate between madcap ensemble pieces and solo adventures, all populated with weirdos and scumbags. Madness is Better than Defeat is an ensemble piece with a generous helping of metafiction thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.
It’s a novel about an investigation into a failed expedition to make a movie about a failed expedition, and the layers of self-reference only increase from there.
Considering Beauman’s batting average so far, I’ll probably give Boxer, Beetle another chance some day.
richardwells's review against another edition
2.0
Two groups of Americans, one from Hollywood intent on making a movie, one from NYC on an extravagant souvenir expedition, descend on a newly discovered Mayan temple in Honduras. They each occupy one half of the temple for 20 years. The CIA gets involved.
The book is long, very clever, intricately plotted, ultimately boring, and goes down (our maybe up) in the flames of its own genius long before its conclusion. It's a surreal vaudeville, showbiz, family drama, adventure story. It's wildly inventive, and it's too much. My thought while reading: I don't know how this is going to end, I don't really care how it's going to end, I just wish it _would_ end.
It ends.
I am no better a human being for having read it, but Ned Beauman remains a clever writer.
The book is long, very clever, intricately plotted, ultimately boring, and goes down (our maybe up) in the flames of its own genius long before its conclusion. It's a surreal vaudeville, showbiz, family drama, adventure story. It's wildly inventive, and it's too much. My thought while reading: I don't know how this is going to end, I don't really care how it's going to end, I just wish it _would_ end.
It ends.
I am no better a human being for having read it, but Ned Beauman remains a clever writer.
junkutopia's review against another edition
2.0
While I still think Beauman is one of the most exciting young(ish) writers today, all of his novels to some point have teetered on the line of ludicrousness for me, but this one's hard to follow (almost nonsensical) story, wealth of characters that have little background making that hard to remember with how the novel is structured, combined with his usual over the top language is the first to plunge right on over that line, the first of his novels to feel like a proper slog for me. I stuck with it due to the moments of greatness that appear far more frequently in his other work.
drawdownthemoon's review against another edition
4.0
Went on for about 100 pages more than it should have, but when all the little stories in the novel started converging it really led to a huge "OH!" moment. And don't even get me started on that little step diagram.
On a side note, I think it's wholly fitting that the reason I picked up this book was because I'd seen the cover ages ago in a bookstore but forgot to note down the book's name, forgot about the book entirely for a while, and then recalled the cover in a fever dream, but then couldn't get the bookstore assistants to find me the book based on a description of the cover alone (and understandably so!), and finally only managed to find it because I went looking for a JG Ballard book to take home and stumbled upon this along the way. Madness is truly better than defeat. I'm glad I picked this one up.
On a side note, I think it's wholly fitting that the reason I picked up this book was because I'd seen the cover ages ago in a bookstore but forgot to note down the book's name, forgot about the book entirely for a while, and then recalled the cover in a fever dream, but then couldn't get the bookstore assistants to find me the book based on a description of the cover alone (and understandably so!), and finally only managed to find it because I went looking for a JG Ballard book to take home and stumbled upon this along the way. Madness is truly better than defeat. I'm glad I picked this one up.