Scan barcode
A review by ausma23
Thomas the Imposter by Jean Cocteau
2.0
Gilbert Adair's foreword to this not so subtly hints at the fact that it's... not so great. He asks the question: if Cocteau was a Renaissance man, adept at seemingly all the arts, was he in fact a master of none? Perhaps it’s unfair to base a judgment off this one novella, but it nonetheless suggests that, indeed.
Adair specifically compliments Cocteau's stark descriptions of the battlefields of WWI, which I similarly found to be the book's sole redeeming quality; images like a priest administering sacraments to wounded soldiers, "forcing the teeth apart with the blade of a knife" and an injured horse "tripping on its entrails" as it runs through the streets are so harrowing as to be singed in my mind. But something's off with the story set amid these horrors and ruins — the characters aren't fully developed, the pacing is amiss. By the end I was turning page after page going "yup yeah uh-huh yup" just to get through it lol. Disappointing, considering how memorable the characters are in Les enfants terribles, one of my favorite books as a teen. Ah well... maybe it's time to rewatch the film as a palate cleanser.
Adair specifically compliments Cocteau's stark descriptions of the battlefields of WWI, which I similarly found to be the book's sole redeeming quality; images like a priest administering sacraments to wounded soldiers, "forcing the teeth apart with the blade of a knife" and an injured horse "tripping on its entrails" as it runs through the streets are so harrowing as to be singed in my mind. But something's off with the story set amid these horrors and ruins — the characters aren't fully developed, the pacing is amiss. By the end I was turning page after page going "yup yeah uh-huh yup" just to get through it lol. Disappointing, considering how memorable the characters are in Les enfants terribles, one of my favorite books as a teen. Ah well... maybe it's time to rewatch the film as a palate cleanser.