Literary_Cat
08-30-2007, 06:55 PM
I have just finished reading the rather thick stand-alone novel by Iain Pears called An Instance of the Fingerpost. It is a historical mystery set in 1663, wherein an Oxford professor was poisoned and an innocent girl hanged for his murder. It is presented in four parts, each told by an unreliable narrator. This book came to me highly recommended...but I fail to see the magic.
As the novel progresses through each of its four parts, the reader understands more and more of what happened, though he or she never really gets a perfectly clear picture. I concede that the prose style is exalted, the history immaculate, and the theme of truth provocative, but really. Was that the only point? Is the entire novel just an exercise in postmodernism: It is impossible to know the truth? And if so, why did I pay $20.00 and spend at least fourteen hours out of my last week to find this out?
If anyone can enlighten me as to the finer, perhaps more subtle enjoyments of Pears' large book, I would be most grateful. Perhaps the ways of God cannot be justified to man, but I still entertain the hope that the ways of Mr. Iain Pears might be reconciled to one Literary Cat. Thanks.
As the novel progresses through each of its four parts, the reader understands more and more of what happened, though he or she never really gets a perfectly clear picture. I concede that the prose style is exalted, the history immaculate, and the theme of truth provocative, but really. Was that the only point? Is the entire novel just an exercise in postmodernism: It is impossible to know the truth? And if so, why did I pay $20.00 and spend at least fourteen hours out of my last week to find this out?
If anyone can enlighten me as to the finer, perhaps more subtle enjoyments of Pears' large book, I would be most grateful. Perhaps the ways of God cannot be justified to man, but I still entertain the hope that the ways of Mr. Iain Pears might be reconciled to one Literary Cat. Thanks.