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A review by sunspot
Netsuke by Rikki Ducornet
5.0
Another First-Reads win, and another book I might not have picked up otherwise, but ended up loving.
"Netsuke" is dark, disturbing, and wonderfully engrossing. The book's main character, a rather depraved psychoanalyst who preys upon his own patients -- rationalizing and justifying it so that it almost does seem like a logical thing to do -- is the sort of character one finds hard to forget after finishing the book; the sort who leaves a stain on the reader, one that takes days to shake off -- if one is able to shake said character off at all. The prose, as another reviewer said, is indeed lovely (typos aside, as this is an uncorrected copy, after all), and there are several phrases and passages I've highlighted in my copy to remember (though I doubt I needed to highlight them, really, as I doubt I'll forget them, memorable as they are).
This was my first experience with any of Ducornet's works, but it certainly won't be the last.
"Netsuke" is dark, disturbing, and wonderfully engrossing. The book's main character, a rather depraved psychoanalyst who preys upon his own patients -- rationalizing and justifying it so that it almost does seem like a logical thing to do -- is the sort of character one finds hard to forget after finishing the book; the sort who leaves a stain on the reader, one that takes days to shake off -- if one is able to shake said character off at all. The prose, as another reviewer said, is indeed lovely (typos aside, as this is an uncorrected copy, after all), and there are several phrases and passages I've highlighted in my copy to remember (though I doubt I needed to highlight them, really, as I doubt I'll forget them, memorable as they are).
This was my first experience with any of Ducornet's works, but it certainly won't be the last.