The Book Pile: Man Gone Down
Michael Thomas, the author of Man Gone Down can write. His prose is inventive, descriptive and at times moving. I just wish his plotting equaled his creative skills.
Man Gone Down is a character study told my the unnamed narrator in a stream of conscious style. This leads to some really beautiful passages surrounded by many ho-hum passages. A lot of the time the book goes nowhere. I'm a fan of character-driven, literary fiction. I don't expect fast-paced plots, or cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter, but I do expect something to happen besides the internal growth of the character.
A blurb on the back of the book mentions the narrator's four day trek across the city to find himself. I barely felt that time was passing in the story. I read this 400+ page novel in about three weeks, which is a long time for me. I enjoyed it enough to want to know the outcome, but sometimes getting there didn't seem worthwhile.
Thomas can write, and I'll probably pick up his next book just to see what he's learned about plotting.
Man Gone Down is a character study told my the unnamed narrator in a stream of conscious style. This leads to some really beautiful passages surrounded by many ho-hum passages. A lot of the time the book goes nowhere. I'm a fan of character-driven, literary fiction. I don't expect fast-paced plots, or cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter, but I do expect something to happen besides the internal growth of the character.
A blurb on the back of the book mentions the narrator's four day trek across the city to find himself. I barely felt that time was passing in the story. I read this 400+ page novel in about three weeks, which is a long time for me. I enjoyed it enough to want to know the outcome, but sometimes getting there didn't seem worthwhile.
Thomas can write, and I'll probably pick up his next book just to see what he's learned about plotting.
Comments