Customer Reviews

The Book of Color

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I recently finished reading 'The Book of Color' by Julia Blackburn, which I didn't think was too bad. The only thing that I didn't like about it was that I didn't understand exactly who the characters were until part three and there are four parts to the book, so that wasn't good. I read the jacket of the book before I actually read the first page and now that I've finished the book I wonder if I read the book that the jacket was talking about. It was entirely different from what I expected. There were only a few things that matched up with the story. It's not a book that I recommend other people read although the pig's part in the story was amazing and the ending was brilliant. The storyline was confusing, the plot wasn't easily discernable, and the order of the scenes is all over the place. The story itself just wasn't good enough and I feel bad saying that because it was well written, interesting, and I loved Julia's book 'The Leper's Companions'.

Julia Blackburn is wonderful. Old Man Goya was one of the best books about an artist I've ever read. The Book of Color is in the lineage of Genesis, of Shakespeare, and of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. Although it is heavily reminiscent of the latter, it does not seem derivative; Blackburn has her own, strong voice. The motifs of the book, its scenes and metaphors, encapsulate the process of its writing. The author is haunted, and tries to follow her ghosts to their origins; you could call this a ghost story. Its understanding of the pathologies of racism and misogyny is deep, yet no character is a one-sided villain. I've read this book twice, and found it hypnotically beautiful both times.

This strange & hypnotic novel is told in a dreamlike state and lures the reader into a seamless stream of vivid images. Haunting.