Customer Reviews

Word Made Flesh

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I'd call this book "dark" if I didn't think that there are a few black midnights that would be offended by the comparison; O'Connell has created a world out of an imagined rusted-out New England mill town that swarms with the seedy leavings of every diaspora from every tragedy-rich old world hell-hole that never was. He's mixed them up with a heavy dose of local mythology and a horrific murder mystery to leave a place so creepy, so filled with the bent and the broken of humanity, that keeping score is ultimately pointless and a net of fears seems to settle on everyone. Great Fun, actually! O'Connell writes so noir that Chandler comes across as a sissy, while his two-fisted hero suffers stoically perhaps the most improbable and unpleasant torture outside of "Marathon Man" Not his best, but fans of O'Conell have to ride the rap that he's created over the last few years in "Box 9", "Wireless" and "The Skin Palace".

the book is a surreal mixture of different themes: noir mystery, love story, linguistic philosophy and even the holocaust -- sort of raymond chandler meets wittgenstein.

jack o'connell writes really well, but the big problem with this novel is that none of the characters are real. by "real" i mean capable of evoking emotional resonance. so in spite of the fact that many of the passages are very stylish and intriguing, at the end of the book i was left feeling cheated, because i didn't care who lived or died, and in particular what happened to gilrein, the book's protagonist.

give me iain m. banks any day.

If you can get through the first few pages of this book, (it took me three attempts to do it), you'll find much more than a well-written horror story.
O'Connell shows us the darkest side of humanity, in a fictional place that could well have been the German ghettos during the late 1930's.
Be warned, this book is emotionally exhausting and ultimately tells us something of the human condition that we ignore at our own peril.

I find this book interesting, but I do not know if I would buy anything else from this author. I was expecting more sci-fi and less of a detective novel. It is a detective novel wrapped inside of a descriptively written suspenseful thriller. If you like detective novels that are a bit on the dark side...buy this book. If you like sci-fi or horror and were hoping for a darker Blade Runner, don't buy it.

The book took a long time to grab me. Around page 190 it started to pick up and become interesting. Remember that I do not like detective novels. If you do like that genre, you would be captivated after the first few pages.

The book has it's fair shair of blood and gore, yet keeps it at a good enough level where theres a great story behind it. Actually a really great story which thickens, and at the end it leaves you thinking "So thats really how it is".

the book is a surreal mixture of different themes: noir mystery, love story, linguistic philosophy and even the holocaust -- sort of raymond chandler meets wittgenstein.

jack o'connell writes really well, but the big problem with this novel is that none of the characters are real. by "real" i mean capable of evoking emotional resonance. so in spite of the fact that many of the passages are very stylish and intriguing, at the end of the book i was left feeling cheated, because i didn't care who lived or died, and in particular what happened to gilrein, the book's protagonist.

give me iain m. banks any day.

I have read this book a number of times and it never ceases to amaze me. From its opening pain staking description of a thug being skinned alive by some rivals in an elaborate ceremony, you know you are in for something different. Trying to describe the story is difficult and I'm not sure that the plot is the most important thing here; its the world that O' Connell creates and the denizens who reside in it that really make this such a great read. O'Connell is really a great writer and he packs a lot of ideas into this book. His ability to describe some of the brutality that takes place in the town of Quinsigamond and elsewhere (a genocidal pogrom in Meisel), and convey the despair and loneliness of the main character, a widowed ex cop / now cabbie Gilrein is something special. I picked this up at the library, loved it, then bought my own copy, which I read every so often. I should state that I am not a big fan of mysteries or hard boiled detective fiction (though I love Ellroy), so being a fan of these type novels is not a prerequisite to enjoying this one. Give it a chance.