Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup

James Crossley · 13 Oct 2008, 23:49 · from 2008-October.txt.gz

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From: ishmael at drizzle.com (James Crossley)
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:49:31 -0700
Subject: (urth) Evil Guest Reviewed in Washington Post SF Roundup
In-Reply-To: <48F3D378.8010001 at colby.edu>
Message-ID: <C5192C9B.7C29%ishmael at drizzle.com>

I may have overstated my case by using the word "off-putting," I suppose.  I
found _Evil Guest_ fairly enjoyable to read, after all, even without
considering what subtleties might be present in the text.  But for someone
who's not on the lookout for such subtleties, I'm not sure that the book
offers anything that any number of (for lack of a better word) generic
potboilers do, and it provides a fair share of obstacles to the casual
reader, too, including clunky dialogue and obscure motivation.

Being an admirer of Wolfe, I realize that many of these apparent flaws are
probably calculated and may actually offer inroads to deeper understanding,
but it seems to me that once upon a time, Wolfe also offered more
superficial pleasures in his prose.  Not every book can be written with as
rich a vocabulary as the New Sun series, of course, but there's certainly a
middle ground between that and the frankly pedestrian writing in this latest
novel.

I just get the feeling that Wolfe is taking pleasure in disguising
glittering sophistication with the blandest exteriors he can possibly
create, almost as if he's smuggling his ideas.  "Pirates popular these days?
I'll give you a pirate novel that traffics in all the swashbuckling cliches
imaginable, and I'll include a straight-shooting narrator/protagonist who
explains everything that's happening.  Wouldn't want anyone to think I was
one of those smarty-pants authors who's trying to make my readers feel dumb.
Nope, I'm just a safe, simple yarn-spinner.  Buy my book instead of that
Star Wars tie-in novel . . ."

James 

On 10/13/08 4:02 PM, "Fernando Q. Gouvea" <fqgouvea at colby.edu> wrote:

> I don't find the initial experience of reading Wolfe off-putting, no.
> Orson Scott Card once wrote a review (of, I think, Free Live Free, but I
> may be misremembering) saying that for him Wolfe had reached or passed
> that point. So folks can disagree on that.
> 
> I'm a little amazed at the Strange Horizons review. I find An Evil Guest
> perfectly accessible on a first reading, and a great deal of fun. It
> certainly doesn't clarify the moral status of Reis and Chase, but hey,
> when does life ever do that? (My tendency is to think that both of them
> are trying to be as moral as they can, though they approach this with
> very different premises.) There are certainly mysteries all over the
> place, but not all mysteries need to be explained.
> 
> Someone mentioned that there is some sort of connection between Finney's
> "The Circus of Dr. Lao" and "An Evil Guest" (at the very least because
> of the name "Woldercan"). But one of the remarkable features of "Dr Lao"
> is exactly Finney's refusal to come up with any explanations at all. The
> circus is there and it is what it is, and the novel is concerned with
> other things. Similarly, "Guest" doesn't explain a lot of its mysteries;
> perhaps it's just that Wolfe is interested in other things.
> 
> It seems to me that "An Evil Guest" is something of a romp, and it can
> and should be enjoyed as such. Yes, Wolfe's conservative take on a lot
> of things is evident in it, and yes, there are a lot of mysteries left
> over after my first reading. So what?
> 
> Fernando
> 
> 
> James Crossley wrote:
>> The Strange Horizons review captures a great deal of what I think about
>> Wolfe, especially recent works such as "Memorare," _Pirate Freedom_ and now
>> _Evil Guest_.  All have hidden depths that make them well worth exploring
>> and reward rereading, but am I the only one who feels that Wolfe is on the
>> verge (if not past it) of making the initial reading experience off-putting?
>> 
>> James

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