“A Dark Matter” by Peter Straub – review
This is a preliminary review as I has not yet read through the book. However at the moment it feels like I will be even less enthusiastic about the book once I have read through it. How can I possibly be so arrogant as to say this ?
Well for me this book starts off nice enough – an author due to events beyond his control gets a flashback to his part past. Then the backdrop gets painted as we are introduced to the gallery of characters. And in due course the protagonist of the story. All well and good.
The problem is that there is a mixture of names used for each character; I have no other way of explaining it. I have no trouble with nicknames being used in literary works. And by itself it would be no great failing of the story, what my primary issue is, and the reason I think that I will lose interest in this book is: story progression…
There is a mixture of flashbacks, dreams and retelling of stories as the “in book author” has been retold of others since he was the outsider. All these elements are intertwined and on top of this there is a need to describe things in detail; to great a detail and unnecessarily so. It takes the focus of the story.
Now some details must be described, some atmosphere must be built up in any good story. but several pages to describe how to get to a destination and subsequent details to describe it and the characters opinions, feelings and misgivings about it tends to put me off. It may be my attention span not having the length required for this particular book.
But I have read books which I have enjoyed which I think can disprove that it is my attention span who is at fault here. It is far more likely that my impatience with the story emanates from my “not liking it”-ness, personal taste, preference, call it what you will.
Whatever you call it, IT seems to make me dread picking up my Kindle to read this. However stubborn as I am in these matters I will read through this book, and if I by then should have come to a different opinion I will do another write-up as a mea culpa.
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