Customer Reviews

The Lake

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I almost feel guilty about giving this book a less than favorable review after the fulsome praise that Kirkus and Rick Bass lavished on it but I really don't see what they saw, or feel what they so obviously felt concerning this novel. The plot is actually one that I would normally find interesting, but I was nonetheless very disappointed with the results. I thought the book was extremely pretentious and ponderous. When it should soar, it drags. When it needs to move, it seems content to merely reflect the writer's own sensibilities, with scant regard for where it is (or not) taking the reader. Also, the style is quite uneven and inconsistent. At times, the sentences run on for nearly the entire page, the words circling themselves and robbing the passages of impact and power, while at other times they are merely variations on 2, 3, or 4 words repeated again and again. Also, Mr. Villasenor's habit of combining many words to make one (forhesaw, andheknew, andthismuch, etc.) is atriteliterarydevice. The author is obviously a man of ideas, with a certain command of language, but I feel that in his case, perhaps his time spent as a poet has not served him well in this first attempt at writing a novel. I probably would not be so negative (it really was tough for me not to give this 1 star) if it wasn't for the puzzling critical fawning. It almost seems that Mr. Bass' review is a sycophantic attempt to ape Mr. Villasenor's rather overheated writing style. I can't remember a time when I was this let down by a book that received such laudatory critical praise. Sorry.

I have gratitude for this book. Daniel Villasenor
brings the reader deeper into the internal world
of understanding and feelings. He expresses the
strong desire to nuture and love. He reminds me
of a modern James Joyce: these are so-called
broken people who demonstrate a worldly capacity
to know, to love, to care for. The book is free
of devices to engage the reader into an emotional state.
It is real. It is honest.

This story has a marvelous set-up and a brilliant ending. I recommend it, and look forward to Villasenor's next effort.

Four minor quibbles: 1. Because Villasenor is more a stylist than a storyteller, problems arise when he strays from the latter altogether. So when the story slows in the middle, the reader is left with the arid space of style for style's sake. 2. The author is overfond of the word "splayed." 3. The stylistic choice to not use quotes sometimes means a brilliant, seamless expression of thought. Sometimes it falls flat and only means more work for the reader. 4. Zach's "making lists" exercise is not concluded satisfactorily.

I found myself unable to put this one down, except when I went to the dictionary to learn a few new words. You'll want to catch the nuances of each word in every sentence here, because the author uses every available word and device to convey a rich, full experience for his readers. Stream-of-consciousness lists, word combinations, extensive vocabulary, and Faulknerian sentences do not make this the easiest read, but the author "owns" these devices and uses them masterfully and judiciously to take the decided reader on a spiritual and thought-provoking journey.