Review: A Lost Opportunity for a Really Good Novel
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2011
I found this book on the Amazon forums and  the character of Octavia was likened to Nero Wolfe. The premise of the book sounded so good that I immediately bought it and started reading. Well, I was very disappointed. Mike, the poetry professor who is going to get in a lot of trouble, is very unlikeable. He is an elitist snob, simply put. In my opinion, he's a wimp who has paid no attention to what has been going on right under his nose for years and cannot understand why his life is being ruined. Then we have Octavia. Yes, she is brilliant...but not brilliant enough to see what is going on under her nose.  She is mean and downright cruel at times, and nothing that she does is done out of the goodness of her heart. That certainly didn't make me like her. She, at least, is a more interesting person than Mike, and has more substance. The concept of this book had so much going for it but I didn't like either Mike or Octavia and had no respect for the wormy, elitist Mike. I didn't find these characters to be sad because they both were self-indulgent and were quite happy being who they are.  The sex in this book is also self-indulgent behavior, but that  didn't bother me. The way these people treated each other did. I wouldn't want to meet them in real life. This book is tagged as dark comedy. Dark yes, comedy...well, I didn't find anything in this book funny at all, not even subtley so.I would have given this book more than two stars because the writing is done well and the story premise is good, but if this is a "noir" crime mystery,  count me out of the  group of those who like dark, edgy, self-indulgent, sex with anyone, anyhow writing--anytime. Give me Archie and Nero any day of the week. I prefer characters who have at least some redeeming values. Neither Mike or Octavia did. In order to give a book more than these two stars, I have to care about the people in it, and they have to leave something of themselves for me to remember them by when I am finished. All these people left me with is a bad taste in my mouth.