I will never understand the people who make decisions in this industry. Great small-press books are published straight into oblivion while mozzarella commandos get million-dollar advances.

I’ll go on the record — I thought it was a fantastic book. And while out of context the mozzarella commando line looks ridiculous, it’s part and parcel of the narrator’s voice and personality.

Thanks Rob, I was thinking similarly.
One must remember that it is the “voice” of the narrator, the protagonist that we are hearing. Do we expect everything he says to sound like that of a learned english professsor? This may sound like a cop out, but taken in context it is something the narrator might say. Would Davidson himself say it? Who knows. If you read some of the interviews he has given he seems extremely well spoken.
I have trouble with some of the prose too, but taking the book as a whole, it was one that I could not put down.

Hmmm . . .

“BJ” = Random House employee?

Rob,

Gotta disagree with you on that quote: bad writing is bad writing is bad writing, and that is one of the worst passages I have ever read (unless it’s a successful parody of bad writing). I get tired of being told that I’m supposed to like the Ondaatjes of this world by people who admit that the prose is the literary equivalent to lumpy treacle.

You’ll notice that I didn’t actually say anything about the quality of the writing, right? That line, though, is characteristic of the narrator’s voice — colloquial, overblown, awkwardly sexual.

That last bit with the cheese sounds like Wallace and Gromit’s next adventure. Of course, it would have to be Wendsleydale hanging out of her mouth.

I love the review from Entertainment Weekly, which was not mixed, but included the classic line:
“This much-hyped book is eye-bulgingly atrocious, packed with medieval history to disguise prose that’s worse than your average Dungeons & Dragons blog.”
Ouch!!

I’m with you, Friday, the Entertainment Weekly review really said it all for me! (At least in terms of having a clear and vehement response, regardless of how many critique-blinding bucks were shelled out for the ms.)

Ooops, sorry I meant Frida!

I really just wish the various publicity machines — oops, I mean ‘reviewers’ — would offer up straight forward accounts: this is a lyrically fatuous novel, built around a predictable allegory, whose Gothic elements and florid detail will greatly appease Buffy fans the world over. No problems with that.

I loved the book. I’m pretty sure that anyone who reads it will either love it or hate it. There really isn’t a middle ground. This book is a doorway into some weird human experiences–addiction, prostitution, mutilation, art, love–and resonates with one of the most universal aspects of being human–the desire to love and be loved.
It annoys me that most of the reviews simply describe the plot and miss the essence–redemption. The value of a meaningful life. This book is a moral fable for the 21 st century.
A literary masterpiece? Probably not. But definitely an interesting read that may move a few cynics (and really annoy the rest). I’m recommending it.

This was the best book I have read in quite some time.

I found the book a very uneven read. While Davidson deserves top marks for ambition, his execution fails at times. The main story of a burn patient’s redemption through love is a good one but the many two dimensional side stories are filled with cliche that distracts.

A great read for those who are prone and interested to sweeping storytelling. It is generally a moving novel, that played to the hopeless romantic in me. I recommend it, especially if you can shake off some of it’s more ravenous reviews.