Good but not great and way too long | The Meaning of Night: A Confession

book: The Meaning of Night: A Confession | Michael Cox

books:


	• The Meaning of Night: A Confession Michael Cox W. W. Norton, 2007 - 704 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Absolutely spectacular

Easily one of the most captivating and extraordinary books I have ever read. Cox deserves huge praise and recognition for a number of things: a) the incredible amount of careful research; b) the dicipline and talent for writing beautifully in 19th century-like prose, contributing to the realism of the "confession"; c) a fantastic plot that rivets over the 700 pages; d) wonderfully deep characterizations of interesting non-formulaic characters.

I think this last point about the characters is particularly important. In almost every best-sellling/"critically-praised" historical novel the bad guys are cartoonishly portrayed and the good guys angelic. In "Meaning...", the main character and many of the other main characters are marked by moral ambiguity. If nothing else, this makes the story line much more difficult to anticipate, and the plot suspenseful to the end. It also refreshingly spares the reader the sense of being preached to

One last, somewhat non-literary point. The hardcover edition of this book is beautiful. This is one book where I recommend the investment in the hard cover edition: it is one you will like to keep forever.

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Good but not great and way too long

I enjoyed this book in spite of its many flaws. First of all, it went on and on and on (unless you're writing War and Peace, there's no justification for a book like this to go on for 700 pages). No one could get to the point, they first had to give their entire life story. I started running out of patience about half way through but I was interested enough in the outcome to keep at it. Secondly, I know this author is some kind of authority on Victorian England but the never ending footnotes that told you nothing more informative than the address of the restaurant the protagonist ate at were just annoying. We get it - you know the era very well you don't have to beat us over the head with it. After a few chapters I tried to ignore the footnotes but then I would think "hey maybe this one will actually contain some interesting information that will add to my enjoyment of the book." No such luck. 9 times out of 10, they were completely useless. Thirdly, most of the plot developments really stretched credibility. It's hard to give examples without giving away too many plot elements but I just didn't believe most of the characters' motivations. Phoebus Daunt is presented as this socially inept character early on in the book but we're supposed to believe that he can inspire this obsessive devotional love later on? I didn't buy it. You would think with all my criticisms that I didn't like the book but I have to admit that in the last 100 pages, I couldn't put it down. So I recommend it but with some serious reservations.

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