Doug says:
> BOX NINE fell apart at the conclusion, I
thought,
> WIRELESS was strong and WORD MADE FLESH was
absolutely
> terrific. I'm not sure, though, that I'd start
with
> FLESH: O'Connell's world is a strange one, and
BOX
> NINE is a good introduction to it.
I've only read WORD MADE FLESH so far (Patrick Millikin's
fault that I started with that, but then he has a lot to
answer for...) I found it jolting, shocking and absolutely
excellent. The things I found most shocking were not
necessarily the detailed and specific descriptions of torture
and death (though they are there, and if you have a weak
stomach this might not be the book for you), but the
implications about the structure of the society the story is
framed in, what has become important and what has become
impossible. There are heavy overtones of eastern Europe
during the pogroms, and a backline of politics behind a
frontline of detection with issues of love and friendship
blurred there in the middle.
It's an amazing book. I don't know what it would have been
like to start with BOX NINE. But besides inducing some
confusion, starting with FLESH wasn't entirely a bad thing,
kind of like a chug of Everclear on a frigid night isn't
entirely a bad thing...
Valerie
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