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A review by sensiblejames
Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham
1.0
I enjoyed reading this book purely from an analytical point of view, it is a gold mine of examples of bad writing. This should have been a real tedious and irritating read, but having resigned myself to it being a complete mess very early on it turned out quite entertaining.
Allingham will string very awkward sentences together, in particular those describing characters. The character descriptions are confused, under developed and very often completely contradictory from page to page (sometimes she cant even wait that long).
One of my favourite examples is of Lugg on page 109 where he manages to give a look 'warily, and at the same time favouring them with a horrific, but conciliatory smile'. If someone could deliver to me an artist's impression of this facial hoo-ha I would absolutely love one.
Another favourite is the interview with the Curator in which Allingham points out his 'sing-song voice' (twice), and within the space of a few lines she decides actually his voice isn't sing-song anymore, it's 'droned' and 'monotonous'.
you avvin a laugh?
The comedic value really shines through again on page 105 where a Shakespeare quote is shoe horned in with no attempt at making it relevant at all. A valiant effort at adding a bit of class to the dialogue. I did occasionally wonder whether this book was a comedy.
Apart from these specifics I felt as though Allingham could only focus on one thing at a time. The story is 2-Dimensional, with no depth to situation or the emotional relationships. She chucks a bit of romance in as nonchalantly as the Shakespeare quote. Most of the behind-the-scenes goings on are woodenly explained by the characters. Also, does she have a thing against Campion? Keeps having a dig every time he speaks. He looks and sounds 'idiotic' and 'foolish' a lot. A LOT.
So yeah all in all pretty funny book
p.s...page 241...can you interrupt a nod???
Allingham will string very awkward sentences together, in particular those describing characters. The character descriptions are confused, under developed and very often completely contradictory from page to page (sometimes she cant even wait that long).
One of my favourite examples is of Lugg on page 109 where he manages to give a look 'warily, and at the same time favouring them with a horrific, but conciliatory smile'. If someone could deliver to me an artist's impression of this facial hoo-ha I would absolutely love one.
Another favourite is the interview with the Curator in which Allingham points out his 'sing-song voice' (twice), and within the space of a few lines she decides actually his voice isn't sing-song anymore, it's 'droned' and 'monotonous'.
you avvin a laugh?
The comedic value really shines through again on page 105 where a Shakespeare quote is shoe horned in with no attempt at making it relevant at all. A valiant effort at adding a bit of class to the dialogue. I did occasionally wonder whether this book was a comedy.
Apart from these specifics I felt as though Allingham could only focus on one thing at a time. The story is 2-Dimensional, with no depth to situation or the emotional relationships. She chucks a bit of romance in as nonchalantly as the Shakespeare quote. Most of the behind-the-scenes goings on are woodenly explained by the characters. Also, does she have a thing against Campion? Keeps having a dig every time he speaks. He looks and sounds 'idiotic' and 'foolish' a lot. A LOT.
So yeah all in all pretty funny book
p.s...page 241...can you interrupt a nod???