About book Hunger’s Brides: A Novel Of The Baroque (2005)
Not just a waste of paper, a 1,325-page waste of paper! Somewhere in here was an OK 400-page historical novel about Juana Inez de la Cruz, a 17th century Mexican nun who was considered by some (according to the book flap) "the greatest writer working in any European tongue". She was born in Mexico and never left, despite reading and writing extensively in Latin about Roman, Greek, and Egyptian classics. Her ideas kept her in trouble with the Inquisition through must of her adult life, which she spent as a nun.The rest of the wasted paper is an unreadable modern mystery written in psychobabble about a philandering professor who has taken up with a student who is writing up Juana's story as a thesis and becomes pathetically enthralled with the research. Something really bad happens, either she kills herself in a ceremony or he kills her or something, and if the explanation is actually on one of those 1,325 pages it must have been after my eyes had glazed over and I skimmed past it.Vickie was right--looking at the size of the book and finding it was a FIRST novel, she said (knowing nothing else about it): that is very presumptuous of a first novel. Judge a book by its container, and stay away from 1,325 page first novels.
What an impressive novel, made all the more so when you realize that this is Paul Anderson's debut. I enjoyed this book so much that the number of pages just flew by. The story: compelling and forward-moving.The language: EDIBLE! Such beautiful imagery.The characters: flawed, well-drawn and realistic.I loved it. I know that this would not be a novel for everyone. The sheer size of it is very daunting. But if you love things Baroque, aren't araid o a little challenge and have a little time on your hands, you won't be disappointed.I look forward to his next book!
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I have found that if I lie down and lift the book while reading, I get a great upper body workout without leaving my bed. You can't beat that! And you can't get that benefit with a Kindle or Nook either. LOL!
—Patrick
