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Composition
Max is not your average little boy. The short life he has known has been one of pain, suffering, control & restraint. However Max has a bigger problem of late: he has started to see visions of the Devil. A short novel in four parts, Composition introduces Max alongside 3 other characters in crisis. Dark, funny, gruesome & redemptive, Composition represents a lot of bang for your (almost) buck.
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First published May 8, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 13, 2024
I like a novel where you are thrown right in, and it's particularly important in a short work of fiction. Composition is a novella in four intersecting parts, and each section features a character who grabs your attention - if not necessarily your sympathy - straight away. There's Truman Barr, in Bangkok and preparing to undergo 'penile skin inversion technique and clitoroplasty' and become a woman; South Wales escapee and wannabe womaniser Owen - keen to make it with anyone in New York willing to believe his increasingly desperate 'How green was my Valley' shtick; undersized and overburdened schoolboy Max, sufferer of a rare autoimmune disorder and recently given to seeing manifestations of the devil; and a nameless psychopathic art lover.
Their stories coincide too neatly? I've never understood that as a criticism of fiction. You could take any small gathering or major catastrophe - from a house party to a terrorist atrocity - pick characters at random and whilst their back stories would be different there would inevitably be a collision point. The author or the artist composes the chosen protagonists - a still life is not a snapshot, it's a conscious arrangement - the title should be some clue.
Dark, but not without mordant humour, there are shades of Brett Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, John Irving, and Douglas Coupland at the bleaker end of his spectrum in Mr Elliott's writing. I would definitely be interested in reading more of his work.
Their stories coincide too neatly? I've never understood that as a criticism of fiction. You could take any small gathering or major catastrophe - from a house party to a terrorist atrocity - pick characters at random and whilst their back stories would be different there would inevitably be a collision point. The author or the artist composes the chosen protagonists - a still life is not a snapshot, it's a conscious arrangement - the title should be some clue.
Dark, but not without mordant humour, there are shades of Brett Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, John Irving, and Douglas Coupland at the bleaker end of his spectrum in Mr Elliott's writing. I would definitely be interested in reading more of his work.
July 23, 2011
This caught my eye when I was browsing on Smashwords last week, and even though it had been available since May with no reviews, I thought it couldn’t hurt to give it a try, what with it being free and all. Turns out, I’m very glad I did. I can’t recommend this one highly enough! The book gets off to a slightly uncomfortable start, an effect of the subject matter rather than the writing, but stick with it - it’s worth it.
Once I started reading, I was drawn in instantly and would have read the whole thing from cover to cover without stopping if not for the need to do inconvenient things like sleep and go to work in between pages. Like another book I read this week (the infinitely better-known, Pulitzer-Prizewinning Visit from the Goon Squad), Composition is really more of a collection of intersecting short stories, but I have to say that unlike Goon Squad, this one had me sitting there blinking and just thinking “….wow….” when I reached the end. While reading, I couldn’t shut off the annoying voice in my head that was debating what star rating I would give the book when I finished it (is that just me? Is there some kind of default setting I can tweak to make that voice shut up, anyone?), but just for that “wow” moment alone, Composition gets five stars from me. No doubt about it.
Once I started reading, I was drawn in instantly and would have read the whole thing from cover to cover without stopping if not for the need to do inconvenient things like sleep and go to work in between pages. Like another book I read this week (the infinitely better-known, Pulitzer-Prizewinning Visit from the Goon Squad), Composition is really more of a collection of intersecting short stories, but I have to say that unlike Goon Squad, this one had me sitting there blinking and just thinking “….wow….” when I reached the end. While reading, I couldn’t shut off the annoying voice in my head that was debating what star rating I would give the book when I finished it (is that just me? Is there some kind of default setting I can tweak to make that voice shut up, anyone?), but just for that “wow” moment alone, Composition gets five stars from me. No doubt about it.
October 10, 2012
I actually can't remember how this book ended up on my Kindle. Regardless, it was a solid 3-stars pretty much all the way through, until But yeah, I'm meaner to comp lit than I am to YA, obviously.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews