The High Mountains of Portugal in The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club

Apr 11, 2021 Ronel Janse van Vuuren rated it did not like it

Shelves: books-that-should-have-a-trigger-wa, did-not-finish, historical-setting, disappointing-read, book-club, tbr-2021-challenge

This is the book club book of the month March/April/May for the Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club.

Let's start with the descriptions as this was a reading assignment on descriptions.
The descriptions were over the top -- enough that I had wanted to stop reading. It bordered on purple prose (if it didn't in fact become it).
e.g. He says traffic of every kind -- and then continues to describe it. It leaves no place for the reader.
"Tom谩s feels cast off, thrown away, abandoned."
Really? Did the This is the book club book of the month March/April/May for the Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club.

Let's start with the descriptions as this was a reading assignment on descriptions.
The descriptions were over the top -- enough that I had wanted to stop reading. It bordered on purple prose (if it didn't in fact become it).
e.g. He says traffic of every kind -- and then continues to describe it. It leaves no place for the reader.
"Tom谩s feels cast off, thrown away, abandoned."
Really? Did the author swallow a thesaurus?
The description of everything down to the last detail along with the backflashes made this a difficult read.
I did like: "an automobile is as harmless as a cigarette".

Tom谩s, walking backwards in an act of defiance after the death of his son and mistress, is angry at God and in search of a religious artefact that could turn Christianity on its head (as he puts it). He has issues with authority, society and technology. And he refuses to accept blame (e.g. when he used a lit candle as a bottle stopper on the automobile's fuel bottle and the resultant explosion; not bathing and then being insect-ridden; the worst: not paying attention and killing a child with the car). He refuses to pay attention to the world around him after the tragic death of his son, mistress and father due to illness, walks backwards like that will change anything, and has as a consequence made him see a deluded dead man's diary as his salvation in his grief.

If you ignore the attacks on Christianity, the automobile manual disguised as fiction, and the tour book of Lisbon and the rest of Portugal, there are funny moments (like when he drove through a town in the dark of night, honking his horn at the darkness as if it will make seeing in the dark easier) and the point of part one is a story of overwhelming, debilitating grief.

And then there in the second ridiculous part of the book the writer compares the Gospels to Agatha Christie novels.
I threw the book across the room.
I've had enough of his incompetence as a novelist, of mocking Christianity at every turn, of thinking using a thesaurus to write description makes you a good writer.
Enough.
DNF. Recommended to no-one. "Martel" means "torture" in Afrikaans for a reason.

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Apr 14, 2021 Toi Thomas rated it it was ok

Life of Pi this book is not. I really did not know what to expect with this book but what I got I could not have imagined. There were parts of the book that were clearly interesting; however, being interesting does not equate to being enjoyable. I can鈥檛 decide if the author was going through an existential crisis and was trying to figure out whether or not he believed in what he was writing or if he was just trying to fool himself into believing it.

My overall impression of the book is that it鈥檚 Life of Pi this book is not. I really did not know what to expect with this book but what I got I could not have imagined. There were parts of the book that were clearly interesting; however, being interesting does not equate to being enjoyable. I can鈥檛 decide if the author was going through an existential crisis and was trying to figure out whether or not he believed in what he was writing or if he was just trying to fool himself into believing it.

My overall impression of the book is that it鈥檚 a type of allegory or parable told in three parts, which at one point in the book becomes a deep discussion occurring between two characters, ultimately comparing the parables of Christ to Agatha Christie novels. It is this part of the book, the second part, that I found most interesting. Aside from an extremely unusual autopsy, the second part is the most worthy of conversation. I am not sure if this comparison of the gospels to Agatha Christie novels is genius or insulting. If Agatha Christie was a Christian and was influenced by the gospels when writing her many mystery novels then this part of the book could be considered an homage to her work and or the influences of the gospel on stories in general. If however she was not a Christian then I鈥檓 not really sure what the point the author was making here. I haven鈥檛 decided if this is a good thing or a bad thing but like I stated before it鈥檚 very interesting. Overall this second part of the book seems to be an attempt by the author to explain or understand his own belief or disbelief in Christianity. Perhaps he鈥檚 a big fan of Agatha Christie and is caught up in some fanboy-like worship of her work? As a Christian this is a little unsettling but ultimately interesting. For anyone who鈥檚 not a Christian, I have no idea how or if this section of the story will affect them.

The first part of the book was my least favorite part of the book and the point at which I almost threw my Kindle across the room, but then I realize there are other precious stories on that device that I do not wish to harm. I did not like the character of Thomas. Despite the grief that he was going through, I did not feel sorry for him. His choice to walk backwards as a way of expressing his grief seemed awkward at first but after a while it just became silly. It seemed as though grief somehow made Thomas an imbecile; he was unable to think logically or behave in any type of responsible manner; he took no responsibility for anything that he did. Despite the sad things that happened to him, everything he did was a conscious choice, even the choice to pretend he didn鈥檛 kill someone.

On top of being riddled with bad decision making, Thomas decided that God was to blame for his grief and goes on a journey to somehow break down the entire Christian faith with some idol that he believes is out there, an idol that鈥檚 going to shake up the whole world. It is this idol that really gets me angry. The idea that some priest finally realizes how horrific the slave trade is, and in rebellion against a religious system that appears to be encouraging and thriving on perpetuating that system, decides to create a figure of Christ in the form of a chimpanzee is absolutely ridiculous and insulting. This priest decides to dehumanize Christ instead of making any effort to fix, or at least change, a system clearly not following its very own principles.

(I almost want to give the author credit for pointing out the irony that exists in the US, a nation defined by democracy while currently struggling to keep its democracy and treat all its citizens as equal, but he鈥檚 not from the US and probably doesn鈥檛 care about US civil issues).

This notion of the Christ ape is a rip on the debate between creation and evolution as though this is a conflict solely between Christians and non-Christians. It鈥檚 insulting to not even take into consideration that there are many other faiths and philosophies of life that do not 100% buy into the ideas of creation or evolution. This is a debate that has many areas to consider but this book is taking nothing else into consideration. It鈥檚 insulting for an ape to be delegated the role of being used as a tool for religious or anti-religious propaganda without clear explanation- this is not a topic suitable for a new-age parable. Why can鈥檛 an ape just be an ape. If you want to be upset at how horrible slavery is, then be upset about how horrible slavery is. Don鈥檛 deface someone鈥檚 religion in blame. There are many things about Christianity that people are constantly struggling with and arguing about and trying to understand, but it almost seems as though the author is trying to say that Christianity is the reason that the American and international slave trade existed and that Christianity must somehow be punished for it.

It is absolutely ridiculous and offensive that a white man from a wealthy family or a disillusioned white priest would compare their personal woes to the existence of an enslaved black person. And jumping ahead a little to the fact that the third part of the book was my least disliked part, I am also deeply annoyed that the author is able to show more humanity towards the treatment of an ape then he was able to show towards the slaves described in the first part of the book. A white man can bring an ape into his home, but a white priest can only read scriptures to brutalized slaves dying in a cage.

So in the last part of the book, which was for me the most tolerable part, though not as interesting as the second part, we see a sweet exchange between a man and an ape that reminded me of the nostalgia of reading Curious George as a kid.. So I guess this goes to show that human beings can be kind to animals and go out of their way to improve the lives of animals, but not other human beings that don鈥檛 have the same skin color as them.

Then there鈥檚 this whole mythological side of the story where weird things happen, such as a golden child bringing fertility to women or finding several animals inside a person鈥檚 body, and all other kinds of silliness. The point of me reading this book is that it was supposed to be an example of description for my book club. From that standpoint, it is a great example of description. The descriptions in this book were presented in a very vivid way. Some of the descriptions were perfect. Some of the descriptions were absolutely over the top and caused the story to drag. In any case, if you struggle with description and want some ideas about ways to describe things, you could read this book to get some ideas. And that鈥檚 all I have to say about this book and descriptions.

I wanted to like this book but I really did not. I won鈥檛 go so far as to say I hated the book but it did make me very angry. The only reason I finished this book is because I selected this book for my book club and felt a responsibility to do so. I am deeply disappointed in this book.Perhaps if I wasn鈥檛 a black woman living in America, the descendent of slaves during a time when Black Lives Matter is still for some reason a debate, I might have a different impression of this book. But this is my reality and this is how I feel after reading this book. I can see someone else liking this book if they aren鈥檛 thinking too deeply about it or happen to live a very charmed life with no religious or faith-base concerns to consider.

I will not be recommending this book to anyone and have nothing against anyone who reads this and likes it. They are not me and I am not them
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Oct 12, 2016 Michal rated it it was ok

Shelves: z-2016-bookechallenge, skim-city

great prose, but the idea, theme lost me or left me groaning, with little middle ground.

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May 26, 2021 Tyrean rated it did not like it

I wanted to like this book, but I kept getting thrown out of it by some of the overly descriptive prose, and the premise was...not as interesting at the end as I had hoped.

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