Word Made Flesh - A Novel Of Absolution ( Special Edition) [Import] [Paperback]

Jack O"Connell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: No Exit Press; Special Ed edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901982165
• ISBN-13: 978-1901982169
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Jack O'Connell's first novel, Box Nine, won the Mysterious Press Discovery Award. His second novel, Wireless, was chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the top ten crime novels of 1993. O'Connell is also the author of The Skin Palace and Word Made Flesh. His latest novel, The Resurrectionist, was chosen by Amazon.com as one of the top-10 SF novels of 2008. The winner of Le prix Mystère de la critique and Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in France, the novel was also nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. O'Connell lives in Worcester, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant but too brief., March 6, 2001

By 

Jacob G Corbin (Prairie Village, Kansas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Word Made Flesh (Paperback)

WORD MADE FLESH is laden with blood, violence, and horror, but the book is about none of these things. Rather, O'Connell is fascinated with the topic academics know as "semiotics": the strange and transformative relationship between an object or idea and the word we use to describe it.

The book is full of people who at some level are acting out their frustration at being unable to communicate, unable to make that fundamental connection with another human being. One character is driven mad by his inability to express the horror of an atrocity he witnessed decades ago in Eastern Europe, another is afflicted by a disease that attacks the brain's language centers, and the hero is a man broken by the death of his wife, the only person he could express himself to.

The prose is beautiful and haunting. The surface-level mystery plot makes most noir seem merely gray in comparison. And it all takes place against the backdrop of Quinsigamond, Maine, the most nihilistic city in the universe. The problem, though, is that O'Connell deploys an embarrasment of riches in his 326 pages and doesn't linger long enough on any one idea, character, or plot point to give it the emotional impact it merits. Trying to fit all his ideas into a book as slim as WORD MADE FLESH is like trying to tour the Smithsonian in a day. Also, it seems to be assumed that the reader is familiar with his earlier, impossible-to-find Quinsigamond books. Despite all this, though, the book is wonderfully worth reading -- because, though his fictional world is crude and nihilistic, O'Connell himself is not, and every word he writes is incandescent with compassion and fiery, holy rage against both the fictional hell of Quinsigamond and the real world that it holds a mirror to.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talk about a book getting under your skin..., July 17, 2000

By 

robb0117 "robb0117" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Word Made Flesh (Hardcover)

I initially picked up this book looking for a quick, mindless horror story. I was immediately sucked into this intriguing story of darkness, despair, and pain in the world of a underground, rare books trade ring. Jack O'Connell has a great grasp of language taking a simple "detective story" and turning it into a tale of human cruelty and moral depravation. This is a great book, and creepy as hell.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Noir at Its Finest, April 26, 2004

By 

Jon M Altbergs (Epping, NH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Word Made Flesh (Paperback)

All of the elements are here, from the gritty anti-hero to the post-industrial city to the femme fatale, you'll immediately recognize this world. However, if O'Connell were merely peddling in cliche, then "Word Made Flesh" would not be worth your time.

Thankfully, O'Connell brings a little psychosis, urban fantasy, and flat-out horror to the table--think Mieville's "King Rat," Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Gun, With Occassional Music," just about anything by Ellison, and Lacan's "Ecrits." Yeah, it's that ecclectic. The amazing thing is that O'Connell is able to make it all work without being pretentious or dense. The balancing act alone is worth the investment, and the Hitchcockian plot will grab you by the throat, shake you like a stoolie, and leave you lying in a ditch by the side of the road.