Scan barcode
A review by meghadutam
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace
having thoroughly enjoyed two of Jim Crace's earlier books - Quarantine and Being Dead, I am now struggling with this book.
Quarantine was a wonderfully interesting and beautifully written account of a group of people in the Judean desert, participating in a fast, while an enigmatic figure (Christ perhaps) is fasting nearby.
Being Dead is a "can't put it down" account of the death and bodily decay of two people on a beach. It combines personal narrative about their lives with intriguing and accurate descriptive prose about what is going on in their cells, their body chemicals, and the numerous scavengers that come to find them. I have never read a book quite like it.
But Pest House... hmmm.. so far (I just finished the 5th short chapter) it reads far too much like Cormac Mccarthy's "The Road". Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Pest House starts wuth two brothers, journeying along a road to some uncertain safe place...
I admit that books are one thing I have little patience with. If they don't get my attention by about page 10 I put them down. This is such a book. I doubt I will finish it.
[edit] - Well I finished it. Skimmed much of it. Strange book. I never quite understood the context. Post-apocalypse? Plague? I don't know. This is the book that ruined Crace for me. It's a shame...
Quarantine was a wonderfully interesting and beautifully written account of a group of people in the Judean desert, participating in a fast, while an enigmatic figure (Christ perhaps) is fasting nearby.
Being Dead is a "can't put it down" account of the death and bodily decay of two people on a beach. It combines personal narrative about their lives with intriguing and accurate descriptive prose about what is going on in their cells, their body chemicals, and the numerous scavengers that come to find them. I have never read a book quite like it.
But Pest House... hmmm.. so far (I just finished the 5th short chapter) it reads far too much like Cormac Mccarthy's "The Road". Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Pest House starts wuth two brothers, journeying along a road to some uncertain safe place...
I admit that books are one thing I have little patience with. If they don't get my attention by about page 10 I put them down. This is such a book. I doubt I will finish it.
[edit] - Well I finished it. Skimmed much of it. Strange book. I never quite understood the context. Post-apocalypse? Plague? I don't know. This is the book that ruined Crace for me. It's a shame...