104 Book Round Up #1

So this is what we're gonna do... everytime T Diddy and I finish books during this challenge, we will review them two at a time on the site. These are not going to be in depth reviews interpreting the thematic make-up and contextual places within literature. They will just be snappy judgements on the quality and readability of the books.



So we begin then with the two entries from this week. First, and inaugural entrant into this challenge, is No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. An author of great standing within his own field of borderland Americana. He has written some immense works of fiction to stand alongside even the most deified of U.S literature. In particular, his Blood Meridian stands towering above any work of American Fiction from the past 50 years in its brutal, controlled portrait of violence and apocalyptic visions. This however is a very different beast. Eschewing the epic big issue metaphor of previous outings, this novel, whilst retaining a sense of existential angst in the paths we choose. The plot is relatively simple: a man stumbles upon a scene of murder in the desert with heroin and cash just sat there. He must then make a choice whether to sacrifice his current life or to risk it all for a chance at riches. The choice he takes is fairly obvious but with his lightness of touch in characterisation, McCarthy creates a rag tag cast of misfits, runaways and psychopaths. Its a very exciting book with much going on for it in terms of action and bloodletting but its deeper themes stay with you and it stands as another great work of high quality American fiction from a near untouchable genius.



The second book came partly through its adaptation into filmic form into my collection but Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind is stranger beast than I had anticipated. Coming into the novel with a little knowledge of the story and the book's notorious descriptive power, I didn't know what to quite expect. In all honesty however, it boils down to one simple sentence: Weak story, brilliantly written. Suskind's description of the smells and tastes around France's peasant infested cities is quite astonishing but Grenouille, for all the evil he embodies, never quite reaches any sense of genuine horror. Enjoyable but by no means a masterpiece.


Next time: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Shame The Devil by George Pelecanos and Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis.