03 July 2008

Candle Life - Venero Armanno

This was an enticing read, but I found the lifestyle of the actors quite disturbing.

The main character, who is written in first person, is never named. He and his artist partner are Australian. She is killed in an accident before the book begins. He has 'escaped' to Paris, where they had planned to live for a year in an artistic commune. He's an author but struggling to get past his grief and find a new story.

I found the characters very self centred and not at all the sort of people I would easily relate to in real life. There was a ring a truth about each of them though that made (sadly) very believable. I did find the story line a little lame in places; but again strangly believable. Although my first reaction was "not possible", there's a niggle that maybe it is possible and I've just led a sheltered life.

Even so, I'm very unlikely to search out further books by this author. The value system portrayed through the story and each of the characters is so much at variance to my own that reading wasn't really the pleasure that it should be.

I can see that it would appeal to others with a different value system to me and it was quite well written, so I'd have to give it about a 3.

No comments: