The Body Library

[Michael, NWC Goodreads Group Admin]

Have you read The Body Library? What did you think? Let us know!

[Michael, NWC Goodreads Group Admin]

Much like the first in this series, there are a lot of interesting ideas, in this case about stories, narratives, and our relationships with them…yet it simply didn’t resonate with me at all.

With both of these, I’ve felt like I should enjoy them more than I do, and keep finding passages and ideas that strike me as being intellectually and conceptually interesting. But there’s no emotional connection, and because of that, I’m simply not invested.

The main character doesn’t seem to have much purpose beyond moving from plot point to plot point and getting repeatedly physically abused in the process. It feels like the author had these ideas, and wanted to wrap them in the trappings of a noir environment, but wasn’t able to come up with anything for the protagonist other than the bare minimum stereotype skeleton for a noir private eye. Without that, the events he encounters are just things that happen, but not things I ever really cared about. And that ended up being disappointing, since there really are a lot of neat concepts there to work with.

[Glenn]

Hey Michael.

Thanks for this discussion thread. I've read and posted a review of Jeff Noon's Vert and A Man of Shadows. I so much enjoyed these novels. You might want to check out my reviews. But, for me, The Body Library is special. I'm on page 230 and loving every single scene. I think morose Nyquest is the perfect main character for this series. I'm right there with him at every step. I'll post again when I read further.