Just a few weeks ago in this very forum I said, "I read an interview with Jim Crace as I neared the end of Being Dead. He came across as rather obnoxious and arrogant, making me think I might not like his other work." Yet I've already read some of his other work.
And I liked it. Not as much as I liked Being Dead, but more than I predicted way back three weeks ago. Crace has an unusual way with descriptions: he uses unexpected words to create a poetic effect without sacrificing naturalism. The simultaneous realism and tinge of the fantastic is what makes Crace's prose so enjoyable. It overcomes a certain weakness in creating full-bodied characters: the narrator of Harvest, Walter Thirsk, never fully transcends his symbolic status as the outsider who wants to join the insular village, and the main characters in Being Dead were, of course, dead.
And I liked it. Not as much as I liked Being Dead, but more than I predicted way back three weeks ago. Crace has an unusual way with descriptions: he uses unexpected words to create a poetic effect without sacrificing naturalism. The simultaneous realism and tinge of the fantastic is what makes Crace's prose so enjoyable. It overcomes a certain weakness in creating full-bodied characters: the narrator of Harvest, Walter Thirsk, never fully transcends his symbolic status as the outsider who wants to join the insular village, and the main characters in Being Dead were, of course, dead.
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