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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86655.The_Keep?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Keep" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171075825m/86655.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86655.The_Keep?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Keep</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49625.Jennifer_Egan">Jennifer Egan</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8279051?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 2 of 5 stars<br/>I picked this one up a month or so ago based on the <i>NY Times Book Review</i> writeup from forever ago, because was that review so positive that it glowed like a deep-sea anglerfish's esca? Oh, yes. But is that an apt metaphor? Also yes, because reading the book felt like being digested by an anglerfish (if you know what that feels like), plus guess what, and this is the most important take-away: <br/> <br/>A book review in the <i>NY Times Book Review</i> is different from a book review in the <i>NY Times</i>; did everyone else know this but me? <br/> <br/>For: Madison Smartt Bell in the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/books/review/30bell.html?ex=1311912000&en=c8a972dc1d4ae400&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">NYTBR</a> was bioluminescent in her praise, whereas Janet Maslin in her <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/books/20masl.html?ex=1189051200&en=b9f9d3e245a87edb&ei=5070">NYT br</a> was more like "this book is the poor man's lobster" (her way of saying, "this is contrived and dumb and lame", I think. Who knows with Maslin?). (dropping this metaphor now; if you came here to read about anglerfish, please see my review of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.justkiddingthisisnotreallyabook.net">Anglerfish: The Secret History of the Fish that Saved Europe</a>.) <br/> <br/>There are some nice, likeable little things in the book, like the game "Terminal Zeus", although the best thing about it is the name, which sounds like something Neil Gaiman would say in his sleep, and not the <i>description</i> of the game, which seems put in there so there is a superficial connection between it and Dungeons & Dragons in general and folktale ghosts from "medieval times" and Danny's uncommented-upon-by-anyone-else-in-the-story goth makeup (which, huh?) and the titular haunted Keep. And in one of the superstructures (the initial haunted-stuff story of the cousins turns out to be written by an inmate in a prison writing workshop, and <i>this</i> story in turn may also be circumscribed by an überstory by the teacher, although I'd have to reread it to be sure, and guess what?), there is a box full of hair that a character uses to communicate with ghosts, and this might be the most intriguing single moment in the book, but ultimately just shows up, threatens to connect thematically and is then is disgarded in a Safran-Foer kind of way. <br/> <br/>All the overall metaphors and all of the thematic connection between foils, in fact, feel superficial and tacked on with this book. Defenders will probably be quick to point out that this is reasonable, because the actual "authors" of the "stories" of the "book" are amateur writers who don't know what they're doing. I am no Madison Smartt Bell (and no Janet Maslin) (nor was meant to be -- foil joke!) and so I couldn’t say for sure that the awkwardness in the writing isn’t intentional, but I will say the poor writing is inconsistent -- good writing frequently shows up -- as are the poorly delineated characters: the inmate, Ray, gives his creation, Danny, a great deal of knowledge about things like the specific names of furniture from the 14th century that neither Danny nor Ray would know, but assuming they do, they then drop the ball on "crenellation" calling it "rectangle things". There's so much intertextual cross-polination and expositional buildup, that the final effect is like a Rube Goldberg contraption that ends up just turning on a lightbulb. (that was not a callback to the bioluminescent esca on an anglerfish stuff by the way. or was it? ooooh, I get to have it both ways!) <br/>signed, Danny <br/>signed, Ray <br/>signed, Holly <br/>signed, Jennifer <br/> <br/>N.B. I just thought of a better way to say all of this, which is: <br/>"<a href="/search/search?q=House of Leaves&t=title">House of Leaves</a> hooked up with <a href="/search/search?q=The Castle of Otranto&t=title">The Castle of Otranto</a> and had a short baby." <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/137408?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>