Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lisdweer
Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman
4.0
If you take this book seriously, at face value, you'll struggle to see the appeal. Unrealistic dialogue, some one-dimensional characters (Hamilton and Torrent, for example), other characters who seem to resemble caricatures more than humans (Betga is a clear example here), and a hamfisted morality: those in power are bad and don't care about women, Maselov is "one of the good ones".
I can see the complaints and criticisms of this book. I can understand them. What I did was read it as a mirror of the world -- but zoomed in. An ironic distortion. The dialogue is unrealistic but typically literary, witty at times, boundlessly incomprehensible at other times, almost Kafkaesque in its ways. The characters are caricatures -- but in the same way those in Ace Attorney (a well-loved game series) are. It's not meant to be a realistic display of current times. It's whimsical. It cuts current issues but doesn't try to solve them. Carla was asked not to take her case to trial as most women lose in sexual assault cases. It's not an idealistic novel. The author doesn't show a Utopia, or act like he has the answer. There is some nuance -- Betga and Maselov aren't the best of people, but at the same time neither are Carla or Maselov's wife.
All in all, the novel is enjoyable. Maybe a tad too long, with an ending that is not entirely satisfactory, but it is meant to be a fun journey in a grotesque landscape of mine-filled companies, most of all the Freely Savage law firm. It touches upon current issues, but the excessive focus on the main cast and their interactions shows it is not entirely meant to be an all-too-realistic critique.
I can see the complaints and criticisms of this book. I can understand them. What I did was read it as a mirror of the world -- but zoomed in. An ironic distortion. The dialogue is unrealistic but typically literary, witty at times, boundlessly incomprehensible at other times, almost Kafkaesque in its ways. The characters are caricatures -- but in the same way those in Ace Attorney (a well-loved game series) are. It's not meant to be a realistic display of current times. It's whimsical. It cuts current issues but doesn't try to solve them. Carla was asked not to take her case to trial as most women lose in sexual assault cases. It's not an idealistic novel. The author doesn't show a Utopia, or act like he has the answer. There is some nuance -- Betga and Maselov aren't the best of people, but at the same time neither are Carla or Maselov's wife.
All in all, the novel is enjoyable. Maybe a tad too long, with an ending that is not entirely satisfactory, but it is meant to be a fun journey in a grotesque landscape of mine-filled companies, most of all the Freely Savage law firm. It touches upon current issues, but the excessive focus on the main cast and their interactions shows it is not entirely meant to be an all-too-realistic critique.