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The Glitter Scene (2011)

by Monika Fagerholm(Favorite Author)

3.17 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1590513053 (ISBN13: 9781590513057)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Other Press

review 1: I won this novel in a Goodreads giveaway. The premise sounded compelling, and at times the book was, but mostly it failed to live up to it's promise. The timelines were difficult to follow as were some of the narrators. I liked the idea behind this novel, but not the execution. It felt like some books from the 90's that tried so hard to be artsy with the narrrative structure that they lost readers. I am glad I gave it a try and finished it, but it was not to my taste.
review 2: When I received this book, courtesy of the publisher, I was a little puzzled as it was described as a murder mystery but the cover was unlike any other murder mystery book I'd seen. At this point I have to admit that I am a bit of a font and book nerd and the cover of this volume is abso... morelutely beautiful – not just beautiful to look at, it is tactile as well (one point scored for the supporters of the “kindle-will-never-replace-that”). But I digress.I started reading and I kept thinking I was missing words. The style of this book is so peculiar it was like reading Ulysses all over again: you will see what I mean when you read the book. It is like modern art or contemporary classical music: it takes a while to understand, and you think it's really weird, but amazingly it all works, and eventually you do understand it, a little while after having closed the book. Which is exactly what happened to me.I don't think you can summarise the plot, as it is anything but linear: there are different points of view, flashbacks and overlap between them. It is an “impressionistic” book in that you have to let the words take you where the author wants you, the reader, to be. The characters are viewed from their own point of view and the point of view of one other character in the story: there isn't an omniscient narrator that we can rely on and trust, to help us form an opinion of the characters. This prevents empathising with them, but makes the reader be the narrator him/herself: it is almost as if the story is unfolding in front of our very eyes, with all its complexities, emotions and lack of objectivity.I liked this book once I finished it – it is, more than a story, an experience or an emotion.The translator has done a brilliant job for a book which must have been a very difficult assignment indeed. less

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