
This book report is presented, untranslated, in the original Sarcasm. Editorial notes are included where clarification is required.
After a recent glut of novels focused on the heterogeneous and unpredictable lives of female protagonists, it was a relief to return to fiction’s stable iron core: a rich white male genius(1) overcoming crippling obstacles(2) and shattered personal relationships(3) in order to achieve artistic satisfaction(4) and well-deserved(5) fame. Our protagonist, John, is born at the turn of the century, and his artistic sensibilities are destined to follow the contours of that century through the development of its great mode of expression(6): cinema.
The novel opens slowly(7) with a David Copperfield-esque recounting of our hero’s early struggles through childhood and school, and into his underage enlistment and experiences of the Great War. Here, through his skills and personal initiative(8), he first comes into contact with a “moving film camera” and becomes a documentarian of the war, and so is born his lifelong obsession with the cinema.
The novel’s pace picks up(9) as we follow the career of the protagonist through the travails(10) of history, a career which finds focus when he conceives of his great life’s work: a three-part adaptation of the “Confessions” of Jean-Jacques Rousseau(11). Along the way, we also meet a host of colourful characters, the “cast”(12) of his life, some of whom will prove powerful allies, and some who may be his downfall. These threads are bound ever tighter as the novel approaches its climax, and come together into a denouement in which all of the elements of the novel coalesce into a satisfying yet unpredictable conclusion(13). Recommended(14).
(1) self-described
(2) self-imposed
(3) to be fair, some of these aren’t his fault, his father’s kind of a dick. But he’s also a real arsehole to his wife, so.
(4) self-
(5) see “white male”, above
(6) for smug dilettantes
(7) this is the only bit I found even slightly interesting
(8) nepotism
(9) opposite. I know it’s a cheap gimmick.
(10) I looked this word up just to make sure it meant what I thought it meant. Bullseye.
(11) Hence the title.
(12) hor hor hor
(13) yeah, every word of that sentence is a lie. I’ve lost my momentum at this point and am just writing the opposite of what I think.
(14) Read David Copperfield instead. I haven’t read the JJR Confessions, but it’s probably better, too.