Review: Lazarus review - a whopper of a tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 29, 2014
This is a lengthy experimental novel looks intimidating, but once you get pulled in you are compelled to let it sweep you into the world of Mr. Akley. Characters pop in and out, and details are conveyed often without context or understanding of what it all means. Some pieces fall into place, but a lot of the time I did feel a little overwhelmed. Each chapter seems to jump in time in space, sometimes covering Jude and his friends as they play card games or otherwise go about their life, or sometimes talking about plantations in the late 1800s, jumping then to a quaint, seemingly rural family. I started to try to keep things separated, like it was all a series of short stories that had been mashed together so that their chapters were mixed. After many pages I finally gleaned that there are three central families being examined here. There are some connections between these stories, mostly doing with the effects actions in the past can have on the present.The story is written well, and I could generally envision what was going on at any time. Emails, long swathes of exposition, and changes between first and third person narration are par for the course here. Editing would help iron out some errors, although I imagine proofreading such a behemoth would be a pain. The cover is very plain, though, and doesn't seem to have any thought put into it. Overall I have to say that I enjoyed the book. It is densely written and hard to follow at times, but I liked the strange writing style and the various ways the author conveyed information.