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I read this book awhile ago for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bibliogoth as recommended by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sahra_patroness, I had to read it in English because even if I can read easy novels based in Imperial China there’s no way I’d be able to cope with one of the heroes of the Surrealist movement! I have to say I found it rather perplexing. I did want to enjoy it as it’s also one of beluosus’s favourite books but found it rather strange. There were some startlingly beautiful and horrible moments and passages within it; there were some great descriptions and some great ideas. What I felt were the weaknesses of the book was its inconsistency, I felt that some points went on for too long and some points just were lost completely. I have to say I also found the use of language, and the swapping back and forth between the narrator being Maldoror or an outside observer rather confusing.
When we got tobibliogoth most people hadn’t finished it. I said that I thought they should even if the did get lost from time to time, it was worth it to find the really beautiful bits tucked away in the madness. For me I really enjoyed the bits with the Shark, and the hermaphrodite, and the story of God in the whorehouse. I enjoyed the tales of people’s lives and how Maldoror would then show up and destroy it all. The book was more philosophy than fiction and I’m sure I missed a lot of what the author was trying to say, but I am glad to have read it, even if it wasn’t the type of thing I would normally read.
bibliogoth as recommended by sahra_patroness, I had to read it in English because even if I can read easy novels based in Imperial China there’s no way I’d be able to cope with one of the heroes of the Surrealist movement! I have to say I found it rather perplexing. I did want to enjoy it as it’s also one of beluosus’s favourite books but found it rather strange. There were some startlingly beautiful and horrible moments and passages within it; there were some great descriptions and some great ideas. What I felt were the weaknesses of the book was its inconsistency, I felt that some points went on for too long and some points just were lost completely. I have to say I also found the use of language, and the swapping back and forth between the narrator being Maldoror or an outside observer rather confusing. When we got to
bibliogoth most people hadn’t finished it. I said that I thought they should even if the did get lost from time to time, it was worth it to find the really beautiful bits tucked away in the madness. For me I really enjoyed the bits with the Shark, and the hermaphrodite, and the story of God in the whorehouse. I enjoyed the tales of people’s lives and how Maldoror would then show up and destroy it all. The book was more philosophy than fiction and I’m sure I missed a lot of what the author was trying to say, but I am glad to have read it, even if it wasn’t the type of thing I would normally read.