Karen's review
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (P.S.)
by Michael Chabon
Karen's review
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (P.S.) by Michael Chabon
Karen's review
rating:
Started this on the airplane home from Portland... a quick read. As I read, I became increasingly fascinated with Chabon's continually more detailed and depressing descriptions of an aging, failing human body.... and even more so, of the flashes of dementia crippling a once-brilliant mind. (Is someone having a midlife crisis?)
I loved the varied and changing points of view and how external observations in one chapter enriched later internal observations from that same character.
The language and descriptions are gorgeously colorful and specific, but sometimes the flowery prose gets in the way of the story (I kept having to go back and re-read paragraphs -- sometimes more than twice! -- to remind myself what was actually happening).
Overall, a sharp little story, although I was more taken with the internal horrors of the aging Holmes than with any of the crimes or victims. Makes me want to read some "real" Holmes, now.
I loved the varied and changing points of view and how external observations in one chapter enriched later internal observations from that same character.
The language and descriptions are gorgeously colorful and specific, but sometimes the flowery prose gets in the way of the story (I kept having to go back and re-read paragraphs -- sometimes more than twice! -- to remind myself what was actually happening).
Overall, a sharp little story, although I was more taken with the internal horrors of the aging Holmes than with any of the crimes or victims. Makes me want to read some "real" Holmes, now.
