Black Oxen

Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort
Review: Readers who enjoyed Elizabeth Knox's bestseller The Vintner's Luck will find the same unique style and rich characters in Black Oxen. But be warned, it is a long and demanding read. Central to the book is a similar character to the angel in The Vintner's Luck. Ido/Walter is a man who is not quite human. He is a healer, a visionary, bisexual and capable of living in two worlds. He is immensely fascinating which is necessary to get you through 503 pages of a rich and complex story which at times is very hard to keep track of. As with The Vintner' Luck, Knox's research and knowledge of her topics from revolutionaries in Latin America to complex surgical terms, to the world of television in Hollywood seems flawless. Fans of The Vintner's Luck will remember that even though it was convincingly set in France, unbelievably Knox had never visited the country before writing the book. Knox's writing is delightful in its sense of imagery and romanticism and beautiful in its structure and form. You can't help but get involved with every character and while this is immensely satisfying as a reader to be challenged so thoroughly there are times when you just have to stop reading and sort all the information and the characters into their correct time zone and family connections. This would not have been a problem had I been able to devote a decent chunk of time to reading the book instead of spacing it out over several weeks. I found myself wondering at the intensity of the author and her ability to fill page after page with such wonderful writing and information. I am going to re-read Black Oxen ( after I dip into a lighter read for a change of pace) as I finished it last night and I'm still not quite sure of the conclusions I should have drawn from it, or even if Knox intends us to have any conclusions. Perhaps like good poetry or music, we will all take our own individual meaning from this piece of work. A much more difficult read than The Vintner's Luck as Black Oxen feels 10 times more intense. Some readers may be unwilling to put in the time, but I highly recommend you do.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort
Review: Readers who enjoyed Elizabeth Knox's bestseller The Vintner's Luck will find the same unique style and rich characters in Black Oxen. But be warned, it is a long and demanding read. Central to the book is a similar character to the angel in The Vintner's Luck. Ido/Walter is a man who is not quite human. He is a healer, a visionary, bisexual and capable of living in two worlds. He is immensely fascinating which is necessary to get you through 503 pages of a rich and complex story which at times is very hard to keep track of. As with The Vintner' Luck, Knox's research and knowledge of her topics from revolutionaries in Latin America to complex surgical terms, to the world of television in Hollywood seems flawless. Fans of The Vintner's Luck will remember that even though it was convincingly set in France, unbelievably Knox had never visited the country before writing the book. Knox's writing is delightful in its sense of imagery and romanticism and beautiful in its structure and form. You can't help but get involved with every character and while this is immensely satisfying as a reader to be challenged so thoroughly there are times when you just have to stop reading and sort all the information and the characters into their correct time zone and family connections. This would not have been a problem had I been able to devote a decent chunk of time to reading the book instead of spacing it out over several weeks. I found myself wondering at the intensity of the author and her ability to fill page after page with such wonderful writing and information. I am going to re-read Black Oxen ( after I dip into a lighter read for a change of pace) as I finished it last night and I'm still not quite sure of the conclusions I should have drawn from it, or even if Knox intends us to have any conclusions. Perhaps like good poetry or music, we will all take our own individual meaning from this piece of work. A much more difficult read than The Vintner's Luck as Black Oxen feels 10 times more intense. Some readers may be unwilling to put in the time, but I highly recommend you do.

Rating:
Summary: Episodic Sludge
Review: There are some good things about this novel. Specific episodes in the book take off and you find yourself burning 15 pages to find what happened. Some of the characters are interesting and unique. The construction is episodic with story lines cut and pasted like reading a painting from the cubist school. Chunks of the story are cut out and displaced into other parts of the story, creating a disjointed reading experience. This might have been a successful artistic technique if it weren't also weighed down by a huge cast of characters, so large that the publisher had to print a whole listing before you get to the first chapter. To complicate this, some of the characters are known by different names which also change depending on the timeline that is also cut and distributed throughout the story. To comlicate this, characters go from being homosexual to bisexual; so you have to identify who it is, what name they're going by, and whether they like guys or gals at the moment. In short, this book is extremely confusing. Knox needs a new editor; this relationship did not work well. Here are some examples of how the story didn't follow through for me. There is a whole segment on how a girl loves her horse. So, of course, two characters feel it's their mission to find the elusive horse and dismember it. They get naked, hack up the horse, bury it, wash in a stream, one guy tries to seduce the other only to have the other one try to kill himself, then the girl shows up, they get out and a flood comes, the dismembered horse floats by, and the story line is dropped. What's the point? To complicate these matters, there are secret societies whose members are unidentified. At one point, the characters are at a funeral. Rather than being affected by the sorrow in the scene, I was trying to remember who it was that died and what her relationship was to the people at the funeral. At the end, someone tells Carme that she's a mother, but I could never figure out who was speaking. After this book, I felt like I needed a study group to figure out what went on. Unfortunately, for all its promise, the read is not worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Episodic Sludge
Review: There are some good things about this novel. Specific episodes in the book take off and you find yourself burning 15 pages to find what happened. Some of the characters are interesting and unique. The construction is episodic with story lines cut and pasted like reading a painting from the cubist school. Chunks of the story are cut out and displaced into other parts of the story, creating a disjointed reading experience. This might have been a successful artistic technique if it weren't also weighed down by a huge cast of characters, so large that the publisher had to print a whole listing before you get to the first chapter. To complicate this, some of the characters are known by different names which also change depending on the timeline that is also cut and distributed throughout the story. To comlicate this, characters go from being homosexual to bisexual; so you have to identify who it is, what name they're going by, and whether they like guys or gals at the moment. In short, this book is extremely confusing. Knox needs a new editor; this relationship did not work well. Here are some examples of how the story didn't follow through for me. There is a whole segment on how a girl loves her horse. So, of course, two characters feel it's their mission to find the elusive horse and dismember it. They get naked, hack up the horse, bury it, wash in a stream, one guy tries to seduce the other only to have the other one try to kill himself, then the girl shows up, they get out and a flood comes, the dismembered horse floats by, and the story line is dropped. What's the point? To complicate these matters, there are secret societies whose members are unidentified. At one point, the characters are at a funeral. Rather than being affected by the sorrow in the scene, I was trying to remember who it was that died and what her relationship was to the people at the funeral. At the end, someone tells Carme that she's a mother, but I could never figure out who was speaking. After this book, I felt like I needed a study group to figure out what went on. Unfortunately, for all its promise, the read is not worth the effort.