A review by scarpuccia
The Optimists by Andrew Miller

2.0

I've now read all Andrew Miller's novel and without doubt I saved the worst one to last. The majority of his other novels have been set in past periods of history; this is set in a contemporary world and quite frankly you can see why he is attracted to the distant past because, on this evidence, he doesn't have much of interest to say about the contemporary world. No surprise then his characters here are all engaged in a retreat from the contemporary world. The problem he always has creating an engaging central character is even more on display here than usual too. His characters throughout his novels have a tendency to be emotionally impotent and, more problematic, charmless. Clem Glass is the epitome of the author's constant losing struggle to create a compelling central character.

Clem Glass is a photographer. In Africa he goes on assignment to a church where an atrocity has taken place. The experience traumatises him. Canada gets a cameo when he goes there to speak to the journalist who was with him in the church. He is helping feed homeless people and one gets a glimpse of a better novel and a more engaging character in the endeavours of this friend. But soon Clem is back in London and the plot is laboured when it isn't a little absurd. And it probably has one of the most ridiculous faux dramatic endings I've ever encountered in a novel.

I have a lot of love for Andrew Miller as an author, especially as a sentence writer, but if you're going to read him avoid this one.