The Return of Philip Latinowicz by Miroslav Krleza

[Diane]

Rating: 3.5 Stars (I am still debating this in either direction)
Read: February 2017

I had been on a waiting list for this book for a while, so I read it as soon as it came available (at the expense of books I should be reading now). This is my second list book by Krleza. I really enjoyed On the Edge of Reason, so I really looked forward to this one.

Let's just say it is an odd book and not for everyone. Krleza's prose and descriptions are beautiful and vivid. The book started with a lot of promise: An artist returns to his home after being rejected by his mother 23 years earlier, after a weekend of youthful revelry. I was eager to hear how this was going to transpire, but the event was dropped and ignored for much of the book. The first half of the book dragged and really lacked direction and focus. I suspect this was where a lot of readers gave up on the book and issued low ratings. During this first half, we learn about some of the book's peculiar characters, but not a lot happens. The second half of the book, however, becomes more engaging and we start to see the plot. The climax at the end is definitely worth persevering with the slower parts in the beginning.

[Rosemary]

I found this a dreary story of a man who is a perpetual adolescent. Philip despises his mother but ends up in a messy affair with a woman who seemed to me just like her or worse. I think it was psychologically truthful, but still there was no one here I was interested to meet, even in the pages of a book, even for educational purposes.

[Amanda]

Yeah picking up on a combo of what the other reviews have said, the vivid description, particularly in the first half, is entrancing. But the plot in the second half is not as promising, and while probably brutally honest to life (from the perspective of men like Philip at least) as Rosemary says, I'm tired of inhabiting the psyche of men like that in these books by now.

3 stars.