Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Two Down, Two to Go

I read Justine a few months ago; I finished Balthazar this evening. Mountolive is currently scheduled for a December start-date, with Clea to follow several months after that. And at this point what I'd really want to do would be to just keep going through the cycle.

Justine is relatively straightforward, at least as a self-contained unit. It is written by a human narrator, from his point of view, on his experiences.

Balthazar is written from the point of view of the same guy after he showed the manuscript for Justine to his friend (Balthazar, even) and got back commentary. Some of the novel is quoted from Balthazar's interlinear (the notes) by some is the narrator retelling the story, relating new (to him) episodes... especially ones he was not privy to.

The flow is a little rough... though the book has some intensly lyrical passages as well. Part I (105 pp in the edition I have) was strong, Part II (75 pp) was long, Parts III and IV (65 pp combined) were quick and packed with wonderfulness.

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