Rating: 
Summary: I kept wanting to like this book more ...
Review: I suppose the comparisons to Eco are appropriate, but I kept thinking "Brother Cadfael meets Rashoman". I wasn't familiar with the historical setting, and found the various viewpoints on the era more interesting than the multiple narrations of the plot events themselves. But ultimately the mystery wasn't quite interesting enough. The ambiguity of the revealed "truth" of each section, while an effective metaphysical approach, undermined the narrative. The first "author" sets the stage, so as I read it I didn't yet know enough to disbelieve anything. But by the time I got to the "fingerpost" in the last section, my willingness to distrust any narrative made the conclusion less satisfying. And, since the style invites you to try to compare the different versions of the same events, you'd like to be able to more easily FIND the other narrators' descriptions ... I discovered that trying to flip back to previous sections and reread parts was difficult and frustrating. I'm not really sure I'd recommend this book to my reading-circle friends.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating, intricately plotted page-turner!
Review: These days it is difficult to find intelligent novels that not only make you think, but keep you turning the pages. Such novels have different ways of "grabbing" you, and can be found in a wide variety of genres. Examples that come to mind are Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow," James Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia," and Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan." These books work because they have original plots (or at least, original ways of presenting new twists on familiar plot lines) and wonderful (although not always likable) characters who do so much more than merely move the story forward. We come to know and care about the characters in these novels, which makes us want to know how they will deal with their respective situations, no matter how horrifying or devastating."An Instance of the Fingerpost" is another such novel. Mr. Pears takes us to a time and place that most people probably know little about. Through four narrators, he weaves an incredibly complicated but fascinating plot that touches on religion, medicine, politics, war, magic, romance, and academia. While the first and last of the four narrators were my favorites, each one must be read very carefully to fully appreciate the author's achievement, for each is loaded with plot twists and subtleties that are touched upon by the other narrators, and are surprisingly relevant in unexpected ways. You quickly realize that there are few small characters, and things are not always as they seem. The joy in learning the truth of the mysteries within mysteries proved to be one of the finest reading experiences I've ever had. If you like your fiction to be enlightening and challenging as well as suspenseful, you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing, complex and highly-intellectual.
Review: Anyone who picks up this book expecting a gripping thriller will be sorely disappointed. The murder and its outcome are only the top layer of a intricate and complex maze in which the nature of truth is what's really on trial. Told from four diffentert viewpoints, this astounding book shows how perspective leads to different "truths", which while seeming irrefutable -- may or may not be. The writing is captivating and the detail of the period is meticulous. Don't be put off by the novel's complexity. It's one of the most satisfying novels in years.
Rating:
Summary: What is truth? Depends upon whom you ask.
Review: This wonderful story clearly shows how even a commonly experienced event can be perceived and remembered quite differently by the various participants. Four interpretations of the events, each seeming plausible and --after the first-- raising questions about the verity of those before it. Each leaving you to wonder how it is even connected to the others, the perspective of the narration so different. Until the details are all laid out, and the connections made evident. I particularly enjoyed the first narrator's --the Italian physician Signor Marco da Cola-- description of a local performance of Shakespeare's "King Lear". The way he animadverts upon this obviously fledgling work of an inexperiened, undeducated hack, implying that the playwright will never amount to anything, is hysterical. It was pleasing to find some humour in all this erudition, sedition, and treachery. A truly imaginative and engrossing book.
Rating:
Summary: A Joy For Historians (esp. Intellectual historians)
Review: Much has been said about this work as a mystery novel and I second the accolades it has received. The work has even more advantages, however. This is absolutely the best historical fiction I have ever read. Pears has immersed himself in the seventeenth century and speaks its intellectual language fluently. Often historians find in historical fiction a wealth of unforgivable discrepancy and mistake. Not here. Pears' use of specific historical characters is well done without charcterizing. His description of Robert Boyle's airpump reveals that the author is well versed in the very latest works on intellectual history and history of science. The only disadvantage of this work is that it might humble historians. He has brought restoration England to life in a way that few academic historians can claim to have done.
Rating:
Summary: not your ordinary whodunit
Review: while I have only completed parts I and II, I must pause to recommend this book because I simply cannot imagine being disappointed when the "truth" is revealed. I have not had the pleasure of such a page turner in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant literary maze
Review: Fingerpost is much more than a mystery thriller. After reading the first half of the book, I realised that the murder of Dr Grove was simply a tool used by Pears to hold together four sub-plots which in their entirety form an excellent portrayal of 17th Century England, with murder, betrayals, and political intrigue all thrown in. I was particularly impressed with how Pears was able to twist the central plot around to be viewed from four different angles, yet maintaining a reasonable level of consistency in the plot all the way through. The author's use of prominent 17th Century figures such as Locke, Wood, Lower and Boyle, all interweaved into the complex plot, is simply outstanding. This book surpasses Eco's The Name of the Rose with which it is always compared. I look forward to reading another book as brilliantly crafted as this.
Rating: 
Summary: Neither an easy nor an enjoyable read.
Review: I didn't enjoy The Name of The Rose so why I expected to like Fingerpost I do not know. Although well written and full of period detail, I guess I was hoping for P.D.James does Mason & Dixon, but instead I got Lady Antonia Fraser does Agatha Christie. I can however understand how many many people will enjoy this murder mystery much more than I did. If you enjoyed The Name of The Rose then this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning! I called in sick so I could finish it.
Review: I'm no great fan of mysteries, nor of historical romances, nor of first person narrators. So why did "An Instance of the Fingerpost" grab me so mercilessly and not let go, even past it's conclusion? Perhaps you should read it for yourself to divine this mystery. Even when the multiple narrators are less than honest (as they often are) and even when their actions are despicably vile, they remain utterly compelling as characters and as human archetypes. You may see one or two twists coming in the far distance, but you won't sniff them all out, and some will just knock you flat. Mystery fans beware: it ain't fluff, it's literature.
Rating:
Summary: the most engrossing and amazing book I have read in years
Review: I simply can't wait to reccommend this book to my reading friends - the four narrators come alive in their narrations as distinct individuals - as does this, at once, very remote time and the all too commonality of the human experience which we share with the world of the 1670's. I would take exception to the reader who disliked the 2nd narration because of lack of sympathy with the narrator, though certainly unlikable, he was so masterfully created and comprehensible through his words - one has to be simply dumbstruck by the depth of knowledge and breadth of imagination that is behind such a masterful work
|
