Magnificence

This is a book I love because of its flaws. So many things go wrong here––the last 1/3 is rushed, the prose is full of excess and indulgence, the plot is thin and incomplete, there are overly convenient solutions to the problems the protagonist encounters, but it doesn't matter. A great writer can g......more

I didn't love this book. It was bizarre. And I found none of the characters either likable or relatable.......more

It's taken me a long time, but I think I've finally worked out what makes Millet's trilogy so odd, even though the books are perfectly readable and lack the obvious oddness of her other recent work (e.g., Mermaids in Paradise or Oh Pure and Radiant Heart!) The novels in the 'Dead' trilogy present th......more

Now I have come to the end of the trilogy: How the Dead Dream, Ghost Lights, Magnificence. I see why she calls it a trilogy (or at least the publisher calls it that.) Characters from the previous books inhabit the latter in a sequence where the time is a bit later than when the former book ended. E......more

SO annoying, so self-indulgent. Long, boring discourses (supposed to sound "off-the-cuff," but clearly arduously-researched) and on ridiculous subjects that no sane person has a genuine interest in. The book jacket says "funny and heartbreaking." I guess that is code for melodramatic and depressing.......more