Review: Vague and Underdeveloped
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 15, 2013
A Trickster Eric Novels reviewRA Faith asked me to read his story "Immortality Blues". It follows the life story of a nameless protagonist from 1881 to 1981. I will evaluate the story according to plot, characters, prose, and polish, and at the end assign a grade.PLOTThere is no plot. Instead of a novel, this is closer to a fictional autobiography because it doesn't tell a story so much as record what happens to the guy. The nameless protagonist is in some place, stuff happens to him and finally tragedy forces him to leave that place and wander about until he goes to another place where the cycle repeats. There is no antagonist so the protagonist has nothing to work against and the protagonist has no motive except at one point and only briefly so he doesn't make anything happen himself. This makes the second to last arc all the more peculiar;  he joins the military. Why he does I can't say other than 'death seeker' or Mr. Faith wants to illustrate how military life is awful. This is not an epic; it's too vague and mundane and listless.Only one character carries over between places and other than her the separate story arcs may as well be separate stories entirely. There is no running plot thread or build up or resolution.  It makes for dull reading. There are good parts, some witty parts, and some funny parts but they are few and far between.There is no ending which is always a mark against any story.  The last arc starts up just like the ones before it and then the story ends. I can't stand that. It reeks of laziness and/or pretentiousness.The second one is more likely because of a scene in the third arc where a character ridicules stories with plot structure and characters who have clear motives by calling them 'lifeless and unreal'. The character burns such a story after reading it. I recognize this is a character's opinion and not necessarily Mr.Faith's but the contrast with this story is too great and it sounds too defensive to be taken as anything but an Author Tract."She grew frustrated and angry at the blandness of it!" Is this character's reaction to the 'prim and proper' story and it could also be my reaction to Immortality Blues.Overall, it reminds me of the modernist literature I had to read in college. I hated every word of that stuff.CHARACTERSThe only permanent character is the protagonist. He has no name and there is no in-story reason for this. The narration doesn't use it and no one else does either. It breaks my Willing Suspension of Disbelief that a person could live for one hundred years without using or hearing his own name once. If there was a reason I could understand but there is no reason. I assume Mr.Faith's intention is to evoke a Everyman sense but any chance of this protagonist being an everyman goes out the window after the third arc and especially when he takes notice of his immortality.As for personality, he bounces between extreme work ethic and laziness; his goals and priorities shift so often and are so insubstantial I feel the plot dictates them to suit itself rather than any intrinsic character trait.  He has a personality but the vagueness of the plot and the prose make him sound like an empty vessel for people to interact with. He is referred to by whatever he means to the person he's talking to; the suitor, the rival, the prisoner, etc. Eventually the prose becomes so broken up by radio news and so reduced to 'feelings' instead of narration that his personality disappears entirely.Another problem is so big it deserves its own paragraph. The protagonist is implied to be immortal. At numerous points he and others note that he doesn't age beyond twenty-something. This is why he escapes punishment for a crime he was framed for (he evaded the law for so long he looked too young to be the suspect) and why his wife freaked out at him for 'stealing her youth'. This is important and yet it is never addressed. It is especially galling for me because I was looking for the fantasy element. Fantasy is one of my preferred genres when answering a review request and so I was disappointed that the character's immortality was never addressed.Other characters are transient and have the same problems. They have one or two traits and otherwise exist to give a speech about gender equality or economics or pyschology or what have you. Most of all, Bea feels like a plot device. She is initially important, then fades in the next arc, and suddenly reappears and takes over the plot some hundred pages later, then Mr.Faith Drops A Bridge On Her so he can move into something else and then she comes back again another hundred or so pages later to end yet another arc. I feel her character exists only to make the protagonist suffer.The bright spot in the character's section is the Old Blind Man. In a world of dispassionate and/or two dimensional people, this guy has life in him! I enjoyed his monologues and his eccentricities such as shooting the birds that land on his roof.PROSEThis author has a style that is great for atmosphere. It creates a sense of personality and place in the opening pages and the first arc. The meandering prose and the disjointed plot threads are appropriate and even effective for a  'small town slice of life' thing but the problem is the plot. As mentioned above, nothing happens. The protagonist has nothing to do with any of the events.As the story continues it gets more vague and skipped over and, in a word, 'strange'. Either Mr.Faith didn't bother revising the end parts or they're a Painting The Fourth Wall metaphor for dementia.POLISHThere are no spelling/grammar errors nor is there any word cruft. I am grateful for that. Word cruft would have made this story longer and more dreadful. In the first arc when the narration is coherent, it is my favorite part.Trickster Eric Novels gives "Immortality Blues" a D-