Describe your new book. Oddfellow's Orphanage is a series of stories/vignettes that tell the tale of the newest arrival to a curious orphanage, a...
Continue »
I disagree with the review that compares this work favorably to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Capote's work was groundbreaking, creating a genre, and, while Harrison's command of language is outstanding, While They Slept is not a classic.
Capote and Harrison's work do share the viewpoint of an arguably biased author. In this case, Harrison admittedly identifies so strongly with Jody Gilley's situation (having one's life divided into a "before" and "after" by trauma) that she does not seem to see Jody, and her brother, Billy Gilley, Jr., for whom they truly are. The overwhelming impression for this reader is that Harrison needed Jody to be brilliant and good; Billy, dense, and evil. The truth is far from that simple.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(6 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
To quote the referenced Esquire review:
"...Haunted is crap of a high order, flung fresh against the wall and obsessively smeared by a deeply troubled fellow. As his cardboard characters' internment gets more grim — no heat, no food, no exit — Chuckles performs his standard striptease: grotesque sex, murder, self-mutilation, and cannibalism..."
As a book review--as an art review of any kind--this one is deeply flawed for two reasons:
1. It gleefully trashes the novel because, it seems, the reviewer dislikes the author. Saying in any review that an author is "deeply troubled" and calling his cadre of work "his standard striptease" is unprofessional--hiding trees of pettiness in a forest of x number of words, written for an editor.
2. The second part of this quote shows that this reviewer, despite his insinuations to the contrary, is not familiar with Palahniuk's work. For example, his astounding novels Lullaby and DIary do not contain "grotesque sex...self-mutilation, and cannibalism"; the murders that do occur in Lullaby are not committed, to write in the vernacular of Haunted's characters, on-screen. Neither are they graphic in the least.
Palahniuk has a mastery of the English language, and of the interiors of the human heart. He knows it's dark in there, and wants to show you. Perhaps this referenced Esquire reviewer rejected what he saw reflected.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(14 of 23 readers found this comment helpful)
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
Carla has commented on (3) products.
While They Slept: An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family by Kathryn Harrison
Carla, January 30, 2009
I disagree with the review that compares this work favorably to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Capote's work was groundbreaking, creating a genre, and, while Harrison's command of language is outstanding, While They Slept is not a classic.Capote and Harrison's work do share the viewpoint of an arguably biased author. In this case, Harrison admittedly identifies so strongly with Jody Gilley's situation (having one's life divided into a "before" and "after" by trauma) that she does not seem to see Jody, and her brother, Billy Gilley, Jr., for whom they truly are. The overwhelming impression for this reader is that Harrison needed Jody to be brilliant and good; Billy, dense, and evil. The truth is far from that simple.
(6 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
Haunted: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Carla, December 7, 2006
To quote the referenced Esquire review:"...Haunted is crap of a high order, flung fresh against the wall and obsessively smeared by a deeply troubled fellow. As his cardboard characters' internment gets more grim — no heat, no food, no exit — Chuckles performs his standard striptease: grotesque sex, murder, self-mutilation, and cannibalism..."
As a book review--as an art review of any kind--this one is deeply flawed for two reasons:
1. It gleefully trashes the novel because, it seems, the reviewer dislikes the author. Saying in any review that an author is "deeply troubled" and calling his cadre of work "his standard striptease" is unprofessional--hiding trees of pettiness in a forest of x number of words, written for an editor.
2. The second part of this quote shows that this reviewer, despite his insinuations to the contrary, is not familiar with Palahniuk's work. For example, his astounding novels Lullaby and DIary do not contain "grotesque sex...self-mutilation, and cannibalism"; the murders that do occur in Lullaby are not committed, to write in the vernacular of Haunted's characters, on-screen. Neither are they graphic in the least.
Palahniuk has a mastery of the English language, and of the interiors of the human heart. He knows it's dark in there, and wants to show you. Perhaps this referenced Esquire reviewer rejected what he saw reflected.
(14 of 23 readers found this comment helpful)
Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Carla, June 10, 2006
Where has this incredible novel been all of my life?!(9 of 21 readers found this comment helpful)