A review by scott_wilson_kc
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt

4.0

A recent London Review of Books appreciation of Byatt by Patricia Lockwood reminded me that I wanted to read this when the title novella became a George Miller movie a couple of years ago. I had thought Byatt fussy and dense, but if this is true at all, then maybe those are among her virtues. This is dense, fussy, but mostly sublime. As Lockwood writes of Byatt’s overall approach: “A woolgathering rhythm, beginning slow and gathering intensity, climbing open-handed from one idea to another.”