I just want to say something about the book here -- it is apparently very verbose. I say 'apparently' because I didn't find it verbose at all; that is to say, I found it verbose, but not in a pejorative way. To quote just one example of what others in the internet community object to, I will reproduce these (my favorite) lines from the book --
The consultant's name was Mr Todd. This can only be considered a joke in bad taste on the part of polyglot fate. It could have been worse. There is a name De'Ath, with that fancy medial capital and apotropaic apostrophe which fool no one.
In order to appreciate these lines, it is of course necessary to know the meaning of words like 'apotropaic', and 'polyglot'; it would also be useful to know that 'Tod' is a German verb that means 'to record the death of'.
Of course, all this is beyond the average blogger, who, while railing at the Booker Prize committee for having made such a deplorable decision in the summer of 2005, decides to call it the "worst Booker Prize winning novel ever", a designation that seems to me particularly misguided, especially since it is incumbent -- some would say -- upon art appreciation people in general and novel reviewers in particular not to pass all-encompassing judgments. In any case, I can speak for (at least) myself when I say that it is one of the most rewarding novels that I have ever read.
PS: Just realized that Books of the Year is filling up nearly as quickly as Books I've Read; apparently I have a tendency to be inclusive rather than exclusive in my decision-making process. In any event, I can say with no lack of generality that all the books I've read this year have been at least moderately good, with most in the very good category, and as such I recommend all of them.
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