Comments on: The Bellwether Revivals, by Benjamin Wood

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Janet: I gather you didn’t like the novel. David’s quote from the TLS review would seem to go part way down the same path as you, although obviously not as far as your comment does.

I was entertained enough by the novel that I’d agree with the comment of “efficient” prose — I suspect if I wasn’t enjoying the story, I would have noticed more clunkers.

By: janet

janet — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:18:46 +0000

Does no one have anything to say about the writing? The clumsy use of language? Here are just a few examples from only two pages (pp.314-15 in the edition I read. “Ruth was stiil padding the stain,” meaning she was trying to sponge it up. Huh? “His glossy eyes swelled.” What exactly is a glossy eye? “His lungs heaved in his chest, up and down.” Now a heaving lung would be something to see! And finally, “…they could hear the stutter of his feet.” And the author now teaches creative writing. Oh, my breaking heart.

By: kimbofo

kimbofo — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:08:23 +0000

Oops. I obviously didn’t pay close enough attention to that issue Interesting that the reviewer also picks up on the false dialogue though, so maybe I wasn’t that far off the mark after all.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:05:23 +0000

David: I’d say that is a pretty fair summary. I did find the dialogue somewhat non-conventional but I attributed that to the “flock” adopting a form of we-speak that excluded others.

By: David

David — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:02:40 +0000

Kim, it was reviewed in the February 24th issue of the TLS. David Evans says in his review:
“Of Wood’s own performance, we could simply say that he plays all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. That proleptic opening, while suitably arresting, drains the finale of suspense (we anticipate the identity of the three bodies long before the end). Dialogue can ring false, and the prose is merely efficient, with a reliance on well-worn phrases… But while Wood’s writing lacks the affective power he claims for music, this is nevertheless a promising first novel.”

By: kimbofo

kimbofo — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:55:32 +0000

My only source of book reviews these days is book blogs and the TLS (I received a gift subscription at Christmas), so maybe it has been reviewed in the mainstream press and I’ve just not seen it.

I’m sure the prose is smooth, it was more the dialogue I was concerned about. It just seemed a bit stilted, but it’s unfair of me to be critical on the basis of a small extract.

I do love the sound of a reading holiday with friends (though sadly, none of my friends are readers, clearly I’m moving in the wrong circles) — and I love that that’s how you had your first book conversation with Alison.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:48:42 +0000

Kim: Wood is Canadian-educated but lives in Great Britain. I’ve seen some reference to this novel on various Booker forums but haven’t followed the conventional press. The setting is contemporary (well, a few years back) — I thought the prose flowed quite smoothly so that might just be a bad example that I quoted.

And yes people do go on holiday to cottages where they exchange books and talk about them. It was on just such a holiday that I had my first book conversation with our fellow Shadow Giller judge Alison — and the book we discussed was The Secret History.

By: kimbofo

kimbofo — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:12:15 +0000

Interesting that this is a British book… I’ve not seen it mentioned anywhere, nor seen it in bookshops.

I’m not sure this is one for me, though, even though I’m a great fan of The Secret History. Which era is is set? The dialogue you quote upfront sounds a bit forced which makes me think it’s not set in contemporary times…

As an aside, do people really go on holidays with friends and exchange books to talk about them as the holiday goes on? I’m suddenly feeling very deprived — I’ve never been on a trip like that!

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:08:45 +0000

Heliopolis would have been great for a Brazil trip. I remember it with fondness even though it has been a couple of years.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:07:04 +0000

I’m a bit annoyed with myself on Brazil reading actually. I’ve started an SF novel I would otherwise have parked for a while (I wasn’t really in an SF mood) and utterly forgot that I have a copy of Heliopolis which would have been absolutely perfect.

Ian McDonald is an excellent SF writer, quite similar in some ways to David Mitchell though more plainly in the genre space, but Heliopolis would have made the more immediately appropriate choice.

So it goes.