Customer Reviews

The October Circle

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

 

 

Like the other reviewers, I picked this up because I really, really liked the Company. October Circle, however, was written a quarter century earlier, and Littell definitely used the time between to improve his writing style. The first half of the book drags miserably, and the collection of oddball characters - the Racer, the Magician, the Dwarf, the Flag Holder - do not make the book more interesting. I rarely don't finish a book, but it was all I could do to keep myself reading in this case.

I came across this book unexpectedly and bought it with great anticipation after having so enjoyed Robert Littell's novel The Company. While the bar may have been set unreasonably high for The October Circle, I must classify this book as a disappointment. I enjoyed the insight into life in 1960's Bulgaria, but the storyline was too slow to develop and the characters, including the main protagonist, were entirely undesirable. I recommend skipping this one.

What turned me off this book was that not only did it fail to portray the horror of Communist tyrrany, as I thought it would ,but it glorifies a bunch of degenerates without a hint of dissaproval by the author of their intellectual dishonesty, or even of the cruel exploitation of children by the hateful dwarf.The style of writing was however good and that is why I will give it two stars instead of one