Review: A near miss
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 24, 2013
What can you say when a writer writes well but isn't sure what they actually want to say?RA Faith writes this epic very well but I found myself frustrated at times as we moved on from one phase of the protagonist's immortal life to the next without much resolution. There was nothing to tie the events of his life together. The writing kept details to the time period and I enjoyed the purchase of an early car etc. but there seemed to be no shape to this novel.At one point in the book about 90% in where we had 3 pages of words describing surrealism and randomness of thoughts during war? Honestly? How pretentious! We have a writer here who writes so well, has a real talent for prose and demonstrably quite a lexicon but just teeters on the edge of vagueness a bit too much. I found the writing impeccable I enjoyed the Latin and Sanskrit referencesI read the book through to the end hoping to chip away at the vagueness and grasp onto something strong underlying the character but to no avail. I thought the book was using the war as a euphemism for some other human tragedy but I wonder if I was just reading too much into the plot, grasping at straws. Was this just a collection of short stories through the ages?I'm left feeling a little despondent after finishing this book when I want to be left happy having experienced the talent of this author.