Book Club - The Art of Murder by Jose Carlos Somoza

[frax]

Before I do a holiday write up I need to get down our book club musings before I forget them.

This time our book was chosen by lathany. It was the Art of Murder by Jose Carlos Somoza. This was his second book to be translated into English. The first book was the Athenian Murders which I had previously lent to lathany.

Comments

[ealuscerwen]

I thought the book was excellent and that the world was persuasive and well realised.

I particularly enjoyed the idea of "stretching" the human canvases and that painting in this context did not relate solely to the paint applied to the bodies but that the act of artistic creation changed the canvases themselves.

I haven't decided on whether this book fits neatly within a particular fiction genre, however I do think it has been heavily influenced by magic realism, which is a frequently used genre in the Spanish speaking world.

[frax]

Thanks for this!

[ealuscerwen]

Oh, and I did think the characterisation was generally very strong, particularly in the bit parts. The only character I wasn't really convinced by was April Wood, who happened to be the only character the conversation led me to comment upon.

PS Thanks for the write up, frax!

[frax]

Sorry - my bad.

[lathany]

That's what I said ;-). Thanks for the write-up.

Just one plea for future meetings - if someone knows they're not going to make the start-time could they say (as soon as they know). I'd personally prefer for this to mean that the whole thing is scheduled later (in the day, rather than moving days). It saves either a long wait or there being two different discussions (or both).

[elle_]

Sorry, this is actually my bad - I was warned in advance that not everyone could make 12.30 and I should have moved the whole thing back at that point. Next time I shall do so :)

[lathany]

Cheers. :-)

[undyingking]

thought that it was pure science fiction rather than speculative fiction

I'm intrigued by this, what's the difference?

[al_fruitbat]

None at all, I just don't use the term 'speculative fiction' in general. I just called it SF, is all. It's really not an issue ;-)

[undyingking]

Aha, OK ;-)

[elle_]

One of the things I found most interesting was the question of whether hyperdrama could exist in the real world and the issues this would raise. Also the question of consent - at what point do you stop being able to give your consent to something? Do the more extreme canvas "stretching" methods in fact take away their rational ability to understand what is being done to them? And in the end - does agreeing to be killed make it any less a murder?

I liked the fact that the book provoked a reaction of some kind from everyone, and I think that it would stand up very well to re-reading. I wouldn't actually be surprised if I came out with a quite different opinion from a second reading (although as I said in the meeting this may say more about me than about the book).

Which reminds me - was a decision ever made on a suitable name for book club?

[frax]

I don't think a serious decision on the name was ever made.

[elle_]

Well, at least we have our logo ;)

[frax]

Most definately!