Damascus

Rating:
Summary: Coincidence...or not?
Review: Like Geoff Nicholson's Bleeding London, Damascus relies on a great deal of intersecting between characters, times and places. Beard uses this very interesting technique as well as a non-linear timeline to tell a compelling and often hilarious story. His characters are incredibly well developed and his writing is accomplished.

Rating:
Summary: Coincidence...or not?
Review: Like Geoff Nicholson's Bleeding London, Damascus relies on a great deal of intersecting between characters, times and places. Beard uses this very interesting technique as well as a non-linear timeline to tell a compelling and often hilarious story. His characters are incredibly well developed and his writing is accomplished.

Rating:
Summary: Characters are not quite real
Review: The conceit of this book is that it is always the same day--November 1, 1993. It traces the lives of a number of different characters but, even though they age as the book progresses, the day is the same. It is an interesting structure but I don't see that it adds a lot to the story.

Additionally, there are many things that are hard to pin down. Beard is constantly giving lists of possibilities. For example "somewhere in the Kingdom, in Quarndon or Northampton or Newry or York, in Kirkcaldy or Yeovil or Lincoln or Neath" runs part of the first sentence of the novel. A couple paragraphs later it's "somewhere in the Kingdom, in Harlow or Widnes or Swansea or Ayr, in Reading or Glentoran or Nantwich or Hull." This is followed by many more place-name lists. And he doesn't just do this with places. We're given possible advertisements, sporting events, magazines, TV shows, and on and on with the lists. I found this to be very irritating after awhile and started breezing through these lists to get to the meat of the story.

And Beard does have something interesting to say here. He is saying something about how people tend to look for a sign to help them know whether they are living right rather than making decisions for themselves. Everybody in this novel is looking for a conversion experience (like Paul's on the road to Damascus--hence, the title) to know with absolute certainty that what they've chosen is the perfect thing. Of course, this leads these characters to empty lives.

And herein lies the main problem with this novel for me--the characters. They are somewhat interesting but mostly unlikable and then, in the last few pages of the novel, they all change. They all somehow overcome their inhibitions and do the right thing for themselves. The potential serial killer realizes his problems, the boy and girl overcome their fears and get together, and the man trapped indoors by panic attacks can go outside. Perhaps they all had the conversion experience they needed but I couldn't buy it. They just didn't seem like real people.

Rating:
Summary: Characters are not quite real
Review: The conceit of this book is that it is always the same day--November 1, 1993. It traces the lives of a number of different characters but, even though they age as the book progresses, the day is the same. It is an interesting structure but I don't see that it adds a lot to the story.

Additionally, there are many things that are hard to pin down. Beard is constantly giving lists of possibilities. For example "somewhere in the Kingdom, in Quarndon or Northampton or Newry or York, in Kirkcaldy or Yeovil or Lincoln or Neath" runs part of the first sentence of the novel. A couple paragraphs later it's "somewhere in the Kingdom, in Harlow or Widnes or Swansea or Ayr, in Reading or Glentoran or Nantwich or Hull." This is followed by many more place-name lists. And he doesn't just do this with places. We're given possible advertisements, sporting events, magazines, TV shows, and on and on with the lists. I found this to be very irritating after awhile and started breezing through these lists to get to the meat of the story.

And Beard does have something interesting to say here. He is saying something about how people tend to look for a sign to help them know whether they are living right rather than making decisions for themselves. Everybody in this novel is looking for a conversion experience (like Paul's on the road to Damascus--hence, the title) to know with absolute certainty that what they've chosen is the perfect thing. Of course, this leads these characters to empty lives.

And herein lies the main problem with this novel for me--the characters. They are somewhat interesting but mostly unlikable and then, in the last few pages of the novel, they all change. They all somehow overcome their inhibitions and do the right thing for themselves. The potential serial killer realizes his problems, the boy and girl overcome their fears and get together, and the man trapped indoors by panic attacks can go outside. Perhaps they all had the conversion experience they needed but I couldn't buy it. They just didn't seem like real people.

Rating:
Summary: I absolutely loved this book.
Review: This is probably one of the most refreshing books I've read to date. It's rich form kept me interested, allowing me to finish it within a week between long hours at school and tons of homework. The parallel lives of the two main characters--meeting at certain points in their lives without ever knowing it--helped culminate a lovely, almost innocent love story. It's a novel about stepping out of your rut in life, taking chances and risks. I bet the next day was November 2, 1993 :-)