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May. 17th, 2011 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cblj_backupSo close. I got so close to finishing Confessions Of A Justified Sinner. But I confess: I SKIMMED.
I really am sorry I didn't like it. I know a lot of people said they liked it, and I wanted to like it, but it's so boring. That's not a critical analysis, just my opinion, but seriously. Oh my god.
The thing is, the book is split into two parts: A presumably impartial account of the events leading up to a murder trial, and then the killer's account of same. But the "true story" section is sort of...drily factual, a novella of exposition. And the guy who gets murdered is the only character I really liked, between his rapist dad and holy rolling mum and her even more holy rolling boyfriend and their obnoxious spawn.
Then we switch over to the killer's "confession", and it's like being told a really long unfunny joke you've already heard, and the person telling it is an evangelical fundamentalist. I know it's supposed to be a satire and admittedly I can't do "unreliable narrator" at all so I'm impressed by those who can, but it's SO BORING. Even the Prince of Hell is boring.
There are these little moments that are really great, but there's like four of them in 200 pages. In context, people didn't have TV or film back then and I'm sure that the supernatural horror of it all was gripping, but I can't get into it. I can see a good story, especially of a slowly-evolving killing spree, but we don't get the spree at all in the first half and in the second half the killer is told he did it rather than us seeing him do it or even hearing about it. It's like James Hogg has a mastery of how to kill the narrative tension.
The devil in the printing-house was a good bit but, again, we didn't actually get to see it. Argh.
So I skipped huge swathes of the Confession half. Especially that bit that was like five pages in thick Scots dialect, and most of the post-Confession stuff. I'm pretty sure I know the ending (especially since the introduction didn't warn for spoilers before telling me what the ending was :D ).
Anyway I'm pretty sure, unintentional or not, that was my dose of religion for the year. Wow.
I really am sorry I didn't like it. I know a lot of people said they liked it, and I wanted to like it, but it's so boring. That's not a critical analysis, just my opinion, but seriously. Oh my god.
The thing is, the book is split into two parts: A presumably impartial account of the events leading up to a murder trial, and then the killer's account of same. But the "true story" section is sort of...drily factual, a novella of exposition. And the guy who gets murdered is the only character I really liked, between his rapist dad and holy rolling mum and her even more holy rolling boyfriend and their obnoxious spawn.
Then we switch over to the killer's "confession", and it's like being told a really long unfunny joke you've already heard, and the person telling it is an evangelical fundamentalist. I know it's supposed to be a satire and admittedly I can't do "unreliable narrator" at all so I'm impressed by those who can, but it's SO BORING. Even the Prince of Hell is boring.
There are these little moments that are really great, but there's like four of them in 200 pages. In context, people didn't have TV or film back then and I'm sure that the supernatural horror of it all was gripping, but I can't get into it. I can see a good story, especially of a slowly-evolving killing spree, but we don't get the spree at all in the first half and in the second half the killer is told he did it rather than us seeing him do it or even hearing about it. It's like James Hogg has a mastery of how to kill the narrative tension.
The devil in the printing-house was a good bit but, again, we didn't actually get to see it. Argh.
So I skipped huge swathes of the Confession half. Especially that bit that was like five pages in thick Scots dialect, and most of the post-Confession stuff. I'm pretty sure I know the ending (especially since the introduction didn't warn for spoilers before telling me what the ending was :D ).
Anyway I'm pretty sure, unintentional or not, that was my dose of religion for the year. Wow.
