pumpkinstrokemarrow

Following my post of 8th June I have now finished my first paid-for kindle read of 'The Flame Alphabet' by Ben Marcus, with the time it has taken to read this short novel being a reasonable comment on how well I got on with it.

As far as the kindle edition itself is concerned, I discovered no more twiddles than a table of contents which enabled one to jump about without having to create one's own bookmarks. Plus the book as a whole was a bit tidier than something from Gutenberg, which tend to be a bit untidy. Maybe enough of a step forward to be worth paying the very modest prices Amazon want for kindled versions of classics.

The book itself turned out to be a science fiction yarn set near a New York in which speech and language had become things which messed up participating adult brains. The exemption of children providing some of the plot and the rather special brand of the Jewish faith of the leading couple providing some more. Plus lots of stuff on the various wheezes needed to keep the disease at bay. An interesting enough idea, but there was an awful lot of pretentious, scientifically flavoured waffle to the square inch. Plus, the author has a gift for words to describe the various sorts of filth encountered along the way - something I can do without, approaching an age when keeping the filth at bay is a real world problem and I do not need fictional echoes.

The reviewer, in so far as I could understand her contribution, seemed to be rather more on-message than I turned out to be. But I can think of at least one person who would find her linkage to Joyce's Ulysses inappropriate. In any event, I don't think I will be looking out for any more from Marcus.