A review by blueyorkie
O Rei dos Álamos by Michel Tournier

3.0

Tournier takes his reader along in the meanders of his thought with this novel. I admit, personally, getting lost in all the contradictions raised, in all the inversions mentioned explicitly or not and in all the signs and other symbols that I have no doubt not always been able to decipher but especially which ended up annoying me. The novel's beginning is inviting, attaching the reader to its ambiguous hero, holding both the paedophile ogre and the universal mother. However, my interest withered throughout the reading, when I had the impression of receiving lessons sometimes in history and sometimes in philosophy when Tournier praised the body of boys when everything under his pen had theorized and thus justified. For me, the novel lacks unity, and if I recognize the writing qualities of its author, I would say that he sins by an excess of erudition that he never ceases to display. Therefore, I am far from the rave reviews usually made of this work and only give the relatively average note in my ranking of three stars.