frumiousb

This is the kind of book that kind of seems that it was written for people like me. I was supposed to like it. Unfortunately, as I wrote in one of my Sunday Salon entries, I could barely get through it. It is clearly designed to appeal to people with a yen for historical fiction more than it was supposed to appeal to mystery fans. I found that it irritated me on both levels. That's actually quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

I found the historical literary characters to be precious and charmless. The dialogue was trying very hard to be smart. All of this is a shame, since it is obvious from the caliber of the prose that Pearl can write. I guess that I agree that he is skilled, I just don't like much at all how he uses that skill. I am probably a little biased, since this period in letters is one of my favorites. I have my own internal view about how these men and women acted and lived. And it does not jibe at all with the characters that The Dante Club brought to life. I guess that this is an occupational hazard of writing about historical figures.

Finally, to add insult to injury, I figured the murderer out too early in the book. It made some of the climactic exciting scenes significantly less exciting.

The background information about the introduction of Dante in the US was very interesting. Too bad that Pearl did not choose to write a magazine article instead.