Eclectic Closet Litblog, Book Reviews & Knitting Designs

A litblog dedicated to book reviews/recommendations, as well as literary and publishing news. Now enhanced with knitting designs.

BOOK REVIEW: Family Planning by Karan Mahajan

January5

In a country where family planning has been the norm since the late 70s, Rakesh Ahuga’s family stands out. Rakesh, the Minister of Urban Planning, has 13 children and another is on the way. The chaos of his home (“the house was the riots of 1947”) is rivaled only by the bedlam of the Indian civil service, a corrupt and often illogical system that Rakesh navigates by frequently resigning (last count was 67 times) to get things done his way.

Recent events have pushed the Ahuja household to the breaking point. Matriarch Sangita is mourning the death of her favourite soap star. Eldest son Arjun stumbled upon his parents having sex in the nursery and is “completely shattered.” His infatuation with Aarti, a fellow student, provides a much needed distraction but in order to carry out his plan to capture her attention, he must navigate sibling politics within “a team of jihadis so bored they’d declared holy war on one another” and face years of sibling servitude.

As the women of India go into mourning over the soup star’s death and a nation-wide strike is threatened, the country’s political turmoil heats up and rebellion looms at work and home. Rakesh and Arjun must come to terms with themselves, each other and long-hidden secrets.

Family Planning, the debut novel by Karan Mahajan, is a finely wrought tragicomedy described by several reviewers as “madcap.” Dialogue spirals out of control, (especially the jargon of Arjun and his friends) leaving readers with only an impression of meaning rather than true understanding. We may not understand every word and illusion in Family Planning, but we are left with a feeling of authenticity, of having glimpsed a true slice of family life in New Delhi. Readers looking for a coherent, straightforward narrative may wish to look elsewhere for their next read; in doing so however, they will miss a truly delightful send-up of modern Indian life.

ISBN10: 006153725X
ISBN13: 9780061537257

Trade Paperback
288 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: November 18, 2008

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BOOK REVIEW: Church of the Dog by Kaya McLaren

November11

Mara O’Shaunnessy, ever-so-slightly magical, is a free spirit who sees people’s auras, heals through touch and communicates with her grandmother nightly in her dreams. So when her mundane fiancée charges her $10.00 for a ride to the hospital, Mara breaks their engagement, packs up and moves to rural Oregon where she accepts a position teaching art. Soon after her arrival in town, Mara buys a hog at a livestock auction to save it from slaughter but now needs a place to live that takes pigs. Town residents direct her to Edith and Earl McRae who may be willing to offer both her and the hog lodging in exchange for work on their farm.

Edith and Earl have been married for fifty years but sadness still clings to them like a cloud. They lost their only child in a tragic car accident many years earlier and their grandson Daniel left the farm as early as possible to spend his days fishing in the arctic. The arrival of Mara on the farm precipitates many changes and as Earl faces an ending, Mara helps the family find joy in the here and now.

Church of the Dog, Kaya McLaren debut novel, is an intensely personal novel. Told alternately from the points of view of Mara, Edith, Earl, and Daniel, Church of the Dog feels as though you’re reading personal diaries and this viewpoint provides intriguing insights into each character’s thoughts, emotions and motivations. In some novels, varying narrators results in a confusing and disjointed read; however, McLaren has engendered her characters with strong, distinctive voices that lead her readers along her chosen path.

Readers will respond to McLaren’s novel in one of two ways: either becoming deeply invested in each of the characters and the spiritual questions McLaren raises; or by thinking it’s all too flaky and treacly, quickly giving up. Readers who connect with Church of the Dog will find a quiet, inspirational meditation on the nature of love and friendship.

Originally published in 2000 by a now defunct press, this edition of Church of the Dog was revised by author and reprinted by Penguin Books.

ISBN10: 0143113429
ISBN13: 9780143113423

Trade Paperback
225 Pages
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: June 2008
Author’s Website: kayamclaren.com

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BOOK REVIEW: The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

July29

A nameless young woman in 17th-century Persia lives in a modest village with her parents, who expect to see their 14-year-old daughter married in the next year. The delight of both her parents, the young woman has learned the art of rug making from her beloved father. Soon after a comet in the skies signals misfortune, her father dies leaving her without a dowry. Facing starvation if they stay in their village, she and her mother sell a beautiful turquoise rug she made to pay for the journey to Isfahan where her rich uncle works as a rug designer in the Shah’s court. While Gostaham welcomes them to his home, his wife Gordiyeh immediately puts them to work as unpaid servants and loses no opportunity to remind them of the strain they place on the household.

Seeing in her shadows of his own eagerness to learn the art of rug-making, her uncle agrees to teach her about designing carpets; however, while her talent blooms, her prospects for a prosperous marriage dim for she is without a significant dowry. When her elders receive an offer of a sigheh of three months (a legal contract for a temporary marriage) from a wealthy young man, they force her to accept and give up her only item of value, her virginity. As she looks at a future of short-term sighehs, the young heroine must decide whether to take a chance and choose her own way, a life of independence.

The Blood of Flowers is a tightly written, deeply hued work, all the more astonishing for being a debut novel. Even though it is set in the 17th-century Persia, The Blood of Flowers feels very modern. The world it describes is so foreign to most Western readers that the time period is almost irrelevant. Anita Amirrezvani opens a hidden world to readers; the life of women hidden behind veils and walls, enjoyed either in brutal poverty or pampered luxury. The politics and daily aspects of their lives are brought vividly to life through the minute details woven throughout the narrative.

Even though Gordiyeh treats her as a servant and with ruthlessness, her actions make sense given the realities facing women in this time period. The heroine acts at times with unbelievable foolishness, destroying a less than perfect rug in her haste to create the beautiful one she sees within her head and please her uncle. Her selfishness and lack of reason leads readers to understand why both her mother and uncle are at times harsh in their treatment of her. Despite the familial conflict and unbelievable decisions made by her elders, there is no clear-cut villain in Amirrezvani’s mesmerizing novel. While readers may have difficulty understanding the decisions her family makes, within the realities of the young heroine’s situation, it can be argued there were few other options.

In a world where women have little control over their lives, minute control over little things becomes all important and with this understanding, many of the actions begin to make sense. Gordiyeh is desperate to maintain her position in society and the security of her opulent lifestyle. Nadeen’s desperate hope is to marry the man she loves while also maintaining her standard of living. The heroine’s mother hopes only to avoid a life on the street and some security after the death of her husband. When facing choices such as these, sacrificing the hopes and dreams of another, for personal gain, makes some sense.

Like the expensive rugs described in The Blood of Flowers which require careful balancing of patterns and colour, Amirrezvani understands that an emotionally fraught story requires a solid base and moments of respite from the turmoil. Interspersed throughout the narrative, are detailed descriptions of carpet making; from design to knotting techniques and the processing of selling the resulting masterpieces. The most expensive carpets contain stories and meaning. They serve to “respond to cruelty, suffering, and sorrow…to remind the world of the face of beauty, which can best restore a man’s tranquility, cleanse his heart of evil, and lead him to the path of truth.” The traditional folktales scattered throughout The Blood of Flowers serve the same purpose, reminding both the heroine and readers that beauty does exist despite the ugliness of her personal situation. The folktales cast illumination upon the situations she faces through gentle guidance rather than harsh moralizing. It is here, in her ability to strike this balance, that Amirrezvani’s nine years of research and writing are most apparent.

Note: The Blood of Flowers is a nominated title in the Hidden Treasures contest and a copy is available as one of the many prizes. If this review has piqued your desire to read the book, why not participate in the contest – perhaps you’ll win a copy generously provided by Little, Brown & Company! The contest runs for two more weeks.

ISBN10: 0316065765
ISBN13: 9780316065764

Hardcover
384 Pages
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Publication Date: June 5, 2007
Book Website: www.bloodoflowers.com
Read an excerpt of the novel here.

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BOOK REVIEW: A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

July28

Victorian gentleman Charles Lenox recently assisted Scotland Yard in solving the Isabel Lewes case; a simple case the Yard should have easily solved despite their appalling lack of imagination. Now, on a bitterly cold late afternoon, all Lenox wants to do is sit in his library and enjoy the bliss of a warm fire. So when he receives an urgent message from Lady Jan Grey, his closest friend and next door neighbour, he ventures forth to brave the cold, despite his inadequate boots.

Lady Grey’s former servant, Prue Smith, has apparently committed suicide-by-poisoning at the home of her new employer George Barnard, the current director of the Royal Mint. At her request, Lenox visits the crime scene and is quickly convinced that Prue’s death is murder, despite assurances from the Yard and Barnard that it is suicide. Thomas McConnell, a surgeon and close associate of Lenox, determines the cause of death to be a rare poison called bella indigo (beautiful blue). The Yard does not welcome Lenox’s assistance which leaves him little access to the Barnard household, forcing him to investigate discreetly and utilize the services of Graham, his butler and friend. It is not until a second death occurs that Lenox begins to piece together the puzzling crime.

A Beautiful Blue Death is Charles Finch’s delightful debut novel. The pairing of Lenox and Graham brings to mind the famous pairing of Lord Peter Wimsey and his valet Bunter. Like Wimsey and Bunter, Lenox and Graham share more than a purely professional relationship. Despite the friendship and amity they feel for each other, the barriers of class keep them separated. “This matter of asking Graham for help on a case was part of that unusual bond – a result of trust in Graham as a man, first of all, and in his competence too. In the end, each man relied on their deep mutual loyalty, which would be hard for anyone to test.”

What elevates A Beautiful Blue Death from just another historical mystery is the relationships Lenox has with the people around him; with Lady Jane, his brother Edmund and Graham. While the central mystery is fascinating, what captivates readers is the exploration Lenox’s relationship with Lady Jane and the window it provides into the life of a gentleman of leisure. Their habit of taking their daily tea illustrates the depth of their relationship, unusual for a time when the intersection of men and women’s lives was quite minimal. It is the man these relationships illuminate which will draw readers to future volumes about Charles Lenox.

ISBN10: 0312359772
ISBN13: 9780312359775

Hardcover
320 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur
Publication Date: June 26, 2007
Author Website: www.charles-finch.com

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BOOK REVIEW: Volk’s Game by Brent Ghelfi

July11

Honed by years of fighting in the war in Chechnya and months of torture which resulted in the loss of his foot, Alexei Volkovoy has become a legendary figure in Russia’s black market. At his side is the enigmatic and exotic Valya, his lover and body-guard. Her beauty and slight frame hide a dangerous ferocity which equals Volk’s, forged through years of abuse. Together they navigate the dangers of a lawless Russia, shifting allegiances and an underworld where nothing is as it seems.

Volk owes allegiance to two equally deadly masters: Maxim, a psychotic Azeri kingpin, and “the General,” a military commander. Both have commissioned Volk to steal a long-lost painting from a hidden room within the Hermitage Museum – the luminous Leda and the Swan by Leonardo Da Vinci. Unfortunately for Volk, his masters aren’t the only ones seeking Leda and it will take more than luck to get out with his life – and the painting.

Volk’s Game is the debut thriller from Brent Ghelfi, whose extensive travel is evident in the compelling portrait he paints of life in modern-day Moscow and St. Petersburg. Against this backdrop, Ghelfi positions his modern-day Robin Hood, a “wolf” (the meaning of Volk’s name in Russian) who shares his ill-gotten gains with military widows and amputees less fortunate than himself. The weekly visits of “mercy” he makes, and the flashbacks to the six months spent in captivity in Chechnya, are the only windows Ghelfi provides into his character, yet they provide insight into this troubled anti-hero.

A gangster with scruples, Volk knows that the distinctions he makes (he doesn’t trade in children) mean little within the broader picture: “contemplating the sad truth that I use children in the same ways he [Gromov] does. My reasons may be different, and pictures and petty crimes might not be as horrible as forced prostitution and slavery, but the price of wasted lives is unchanged no matter what they are used to purchase.” As exciting a ride as the central mystery is in Volk’s Game, the part which makes the book impossible to put down is the inner battle Volk fights daily between his natural violence and his hidden compassion. He flips on a dime, one moment exacting horrific retribution on an enemy and the next he spirits away the neglected baby of a drug-addled prostitute, determined she’ll have a better life.

Through everything Ghelfi throws into this merciless ride, Volk is still shown with to possess human weaknesses. He may possess a super-human ability to battle through pain but he is still affected by his love for Valya and his scruples – weaknesses which can ultimately be used against him in the race for the Leda.

Inevitably, readers may wonder if Ghelfi means Volk to be a mirror for the current state of Russia, portraying the two sides of a country attempting to adjust to the aftermath of decades of war, corruption and poverty. An open and “compassionate” country to visitors willing to leave behind their money, the violence against her citizens and those who “cross” politicians is the stuff of legends.

ISBN10: 0805082549
ISBN13: 9780805082548

Hardcover
320 Pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Publication Date: June 12, 2007
Book Website: volksgame.com

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BOOK REVIEW: Out of Character by Vanessa Craft

July3

Journalist Emma Gordon lives a staid, unremarkable life, most of which is spent within books. Haunted by the memory of her mother’s abandonment and struggling with her father Jack’s impending marriage, Emma seeks refuge with her favourite fictional characters avoiding a reality she can’t handle. Jack is convinced Emma is wasting her time at Oxygen magazine and is dismayed at her lack of ambition.

Seeking something she hasn’t been able to define, Emma finds herself volunteering to go undercover in one of London’s top gentlemen’s clubs surprising even herself. Completely out of her depth in this glittering world of sex, power and facades, Emma struggles to find her feet and the angle for her story while trying to create an alter-ego who can succeed where shy Emma can not. Drawn into the unreality of life at Platinum, the lines between Emma’s role as an undercover journalist and the increasingly fascinating life of a top earning stripper begin to blur until the night that Jack finds her mid-dance and they must finally deal with their past.

Out of Character, the debut novel from lifestyle journalist Vanessa Craft, germinated from a visit Craft made to one of London’s top gentlemen’s clubs to visit a friend who was dancing. She inadvertently spotted a colleague at the tip rail and from that glimpse came the moment of dénouement when Jack spots Emma on stage and a novel where Craft could explore the idea of two worlds colliding and its impact on ego and identity.

In Emma Gordon, Craft has created a fascinating heroine. Readers will be mesmerized by the journey Emma undergoes from a tourist of her own life to the birth of Phoenix, her seductive alter ego. Finding her place within the glittering world of Platinum is a struggle for Emma, who has spent years being an invisible observer of life. Her first night dancing stage ends with her heel caught in her dress and catapulting head first into a customer’s lap. Emma embodies the awkward, self-conscious child found inside everyone and readers will quickly empathize with her and glory in her new found confidence.

While Craft never explicitly questions the role of identity in maintaining a connection to reality, this is an underlying theme within Out of Character. Emma has lived without a strong link to the world since her mother’s sudden departure, with Jack providing his skewed perspective where money and power are the only goal worth pursuing. It is unsurprising then that her identity has been so easy to walk away from. Emma’s whole life has been about creating alternate realities and adopting the persona of Phoenix is incredibly seductive. Phoenix is powerful and confident in her own sexuality and attractiveness, and provides a certainty which Emma has never possessed and always wanted.

Out of Character is a difficult novel to put down. This reviewer approached the book with doubts, uncertain how it could be about empowerment when dealing with exotic dancers. Craft doesn’t directly approach issues of feminism, choosing instead to frame it within Emma’s personal journey. While readers will find few obvious answers, the questions raised will continue to engage readers and it is anticipated that Out of Character will provoke fascinating book group debates.

View the book’s trailer here.

ISBN10: 1552638235
ISBN13: 9781552638231

Trade Paperback
288 Pages
Publisher: Key Porter Books
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Author Website: www.vanessacraft.com

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BOOK REVIEW: Petropolis by Anya Ulinich

July2

Sasha Goldberg, a mixed-race Russian Jew, lives with her mother in Asbestos 2, once a Stalinist model town but now only a place from which to escape. Lubov, Sasha’s domineering mother, is determined that despite the mediocrity of their surroundings her daughter will have all the benefits of a bourgeois upbringing. Too pudgy for ballet and with no musical gifts, Sasha’s only talent is for art and so she undertakes art lessons in a damp apartment block basement. There she discovers passion, falling in love with an art-school drop-out who lives in a concrete pipe in the dump outside town. Their brief romance leads to pregnancy and outrage from Lubov.

Determined that her daughter will still have a chance at success, Lubov takes baby Nadia as her own and sends Sasha off to art school in Moscow. Sasha is not at home at the art school, for her mother cheated and sent in the drop-out’s art work and claimed it was the work of Sasha. In a bid to escape and find the father who left her behind, Sasha signs up as a mail-order bride and lands in Arizona as the teenage bride of an old-fashioned Russian. Each step Sasha takes to carve a new life for herself leads to increasingly absurd realities and Sasha’s journey becomes a surreal modern-day Odyssey, as she seeks her father and ultimately herself.

Petropolis is the debut novel of Anya Ulinich and readers may be forgiven for the belief that much of this novel is autobiographical. Like Sasha, Anya emigrated from Russia to the United States when she was 17, learned English from watching TV and attended art school. The assumption that this is merely a memoir masquerading as a novel does Ulinich’s writing a great disservice, not only because Petropolis is a biting satire of the coming-of-age novel as a genre but also because she writes black, screwball comedy so incredibly well, especially when one remembers she is writing in her second language.

Petropolis, while certainly containing a great deal of immigrant humour, quickly moves beyond the stereotypical into parody and farce. Ulinich pushes readers beyond their comfort zone but never sinks into Borat-style humour. The extreme situations are designed to throw startling light on the hopelessness of life in Siberia and the overwhelming desperation Sasha feels to escape. Coming-of-age in this situation is not a journey of self-discovery, rather a desperate attempt to find a way to merely exist, outside the servitude to poverty’s daily grind.

While Petropolis, is mainly a commentary on the immigrant experience, it also presents an unique look at mother-daughter relationships. Ulinich seems to be addressing a fundamental question “what affect will extreme poverty and a wish for a better future for your child have on the parent-child relationship?” Lubov is desperate for her daughter to escape life in Asbestos 2 and the decisions she makes appear hard and without consideration for Sasha’s dreams. As Sasha grows through her experiences, she is able to develop some understanding of her mother’s motivation and this gradual melting of the ice between them is one of the truly heart-wrenching aspects of the novel.

Ulinich prevents her novel devolving into slapstick by maintaining Sasha’s fundamental humanity at the centre of her novel. Sasha, like many immigrants, is a survivor and her ability to maintain hope, no matter what life throws at her, is what makes her such a mesmerizing heroine. Readers will soon find themselves deeply enamored of Sasha, for her dry wit, unique perspective on all things American and her huge heart.

Note: I have offered this book as a prize in the Hidden Treasures review contest. To learn more about the contest (which begins on July 15), click here. Enter early and often – there are a lot of great prizes from a number of publishers.

ISBN10: 0670038199
ISBN13: 9780670038190

Hardcover
336 Pages
Publisher: Viking USA
Publication Date: February 20, 2007

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BOOK REVIEW: Ticknor by Sheila Heti

March3

On a rainy night, George Ticknor departs for his friend William Prescott’s dinner party, carrying a pie. During his journey, a lifetime of resentment at his own failure and jealously of Prescott’s success is reviewed as Ticknor deliberates on real and imagined slights, awkward social events and professional failure. Morose, wet and bearing a ruined pie, Ticknor would rather not arrive at Prescott’s but is incapable of returning home with yet another black mark on his character. Through his rambling recollections, a picture of the complex relationship between biographer and subject is drawn.

Ticknor is loosely based on the real-life friendship between historian William Hickling Prescott and his biographer George Ticknor. As author Sheila Heti shared in an interview with her publishers: “I picked up a fake leather-bound book…I opened to the middle and was shocked by what I read – there was something so obsessive and petty about the writer.” Heti walked out of the café with Life of William Hickling Prescott by George Ticknor and the subject for her first novel was found.

Several critics have called Ticknor “Prufrockian” and the comparison makes sense. Like T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” it is difficult to determine exactly what is occurring in Ticknor. Readers are exposed to the seething mass of thoughts, images, emotions and memories running through Ticknor’s head as he makes his way to Prescott’s dinner party. It is unclear if Ticknor is speaking directly to the reader or if he is carrying on an internal dialogue designed to rewrite his own history.

Ticknor is a bitter man and Heti has perfectly captured the obsessive nature of his character, filling the narration with repetition, self-justification, bitterness, hatred, obsession and love. Readers are quickly pulled into the mire that is Ticknor’s mind, leaving the reader in a state of heightened anxiety similar to the one experienced by Ticknor as he steps out his door.

Sheila Heti runs the popular Trampoline Hall lecture series held in Toronto and New York City, which features people speaking on subjects outside their areas of expertise. She has published a collection of short stories, The Middle Stories, and writes for a variety of journals and anthologies. Her musical “All Our Happy Days Are Stupid”, commissioned by Nightwood Theatre and featuring the music of Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, was produced in 2006.

Read the review at Curled Up with a Good Book.

ISBN10: 0374277540
ISBN13: 9780374277543

Hardcover
128 Pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: April 4, 2006

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BOOK REVIEW: The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

March1

Ambrose Zephyr has spent his life playing with letters, first with antique type blocks and later at the advertising agency Dravot, Carnehan. Around his fiftieth birthday, Ambrose fails his medical exam and is told he has one month to live. Hoping to pay final visits to his favourite places, and visit a few on his must-see list, Ambrose and his wife Zappora Ashkenazi (Zipper) embark on a whirlwind trip. On their trip organized from A to Z – Amsterdam to Zanzibar – Ambrose and Zipper keep physically moving while their minds stand still at the momentous news. As their journey leads them to confront the upcoming change in the course of their lives, ultimately Ambrose and Zipper must face the final moments of their marriage.

The End of the Alphabet is the debut novel by CS Richardson, a Canadian book designer. This small gem explores two significant life issues: what makes a marriage and how someone faces their final moments. Richardson handles these age-old issues with gentleness, humour and panache, encouraging his readers to read between the letters for the words unsaid. Richardson provides no answers, allowing the tone and flavour of his tale to speak, and his readers to find their own meaning.

Richardson’s tender words are a masterpiece of balance, yin and yang, Ambrose’s A to Z to Zipper’s Z to A. Beginning and ending with the phrase “this story is unlikely,”
The End of the Alphabet is circular, reflecting back upon itself. In a dream a camel shares an essential truth with Ambrose: “There is no why…Life goes on. Death goes on. Love goes on. It is all as simple as that.”

Richardson’s skill as a book designer is clearly displayed in this small volume. Zipper buys a moleskin notebook to record their travels and the book’s jacket is the notebook, reflecting mementos of the trip – even Ambrose’s camel.

In spite of the subject matter, The End of the Alphabet is a joyful book, full of love. This is a book worthy of frequent samplings.

ISBN10: 0385663404
ISBN13: 9780385663403

Hardcover
152 Pages
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Publication Date: January 23, 2007

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BOOK REVIEW: The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist

February17

Celeste Temple, a willful young woman from the West Indies, receives a terse note from her fiancée ending their engagement without any explanation. Roger Bascombe, a rising figure at the Foreign Ministry, has been cruel in his rejection and after mourning the engagement for a day, Miss Temple’s natural determination rising to the fore. Resolving to receive more information, Miss Temple follows Bascombe to Harschmort Manor where she finds herself an unwilling participant in a bizarre ritual involving masked guests, lewd behaviour and strange equipment.

When Miss Temple manages to escape from the Manor, she meets Cardinal Chang and later Dr. Svenson. Together they discover that the bizarre ritual Miss Temple observed involves a process of capturing experiences and trapping them in blue glass which can then be fully experienced through all sense by anyone viewing the image. Not only does this mysterious glass capture images and seduce the users, it can also be used to subdue and control others or to kill people. With the Cabal that controls the Process determined to see them dead, Miss Temple, the Doctor and the Cardinal band together to stay alive and uncover the Cabal’s secrets, and prevent them succeeding with their evil machinations.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is a massive book and not only in its page count. The novel is overblown in the manner of the best Victorian gothic novels, both in the scope of the conspiracy, the gloom of its setting and the number of players. The three protagonists and the Cabal leaders are all larger-than-life (essentially stereotypes), yet are fully drawn and readers will quickly come to respect each for how they push their personal boundaries and develop through the novel. Edgar Allen Poe explored “the terror of the soul” in his gothic novels, most notably in Fall of the House of Usher, and Dahlquist does the same here as his protagonists face their deepest desires in the seductive offerings of the Cabal.

Each time readers are convinced that Miss Temple, the Doctor or the Cardinal are finished, a twist happens and they manage a death-defying escape. While readers may be unable to completely suspend belief – for really the number of escapes is exorbitant – the over-the-top nature of The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters perfectly mirrors its predecessors.

Readers who are seeking a quick or straightforward novel should take a pass on Gordon Dahlquist’s debut novel; however, lovers of period, genre-bending novels full of florid language will find The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters a delight which captures the imagination as completely as one of the Cabal’s books.

ISBN10: 0385340354
ISBN13: 9780385340359

Hardcover
768 Pages
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: August 1, 2006
Book Website (US): www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/glassbooks
Book Website (UK): www.glassbooks.co.uk

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