A review by ocurtsinger
Bohane, sombre cité (ROMANS, NOUVELL) by Kevin Barry

4.0

While reading this book I was reminded of what it's like to read William Gibson's Neuromancer for the first time. At first it's a little unclear what the meat of the story is, but if you just hang on and let the rhythm and cadence of the prose take you for a ride, you will find yourself in a new and fascinating place. And what a place; Bohane is a weird and wild mash-up of Jamaican shanty-towns, Soviet tenements, and Little Italy and Chinatown. It's true that the plot and characters are lacking a little cohesiveness, but ultimately you'll find yourself turning the pages not for the story-line, but to explore the city as Barry describes it. You feel yourself prowling backstreets and lingering in the memories that the lights and the smells conjure. Reading the novel is similar to reading a poem in which the message may be hard to grasp at first, but the language is so rich and deftly wielded that you've got to stop and admire the lush imagery that you find yourself conjuring.