"Company of Liars" by Karen Maitland

I got to agree with Gary on this, "Company of Liars" (henceforth shortened to "COL") is a good read. It packs enough of a story and mystery about this band of travellers who are fleeing the plague to get you to keep going and reading on, right up to the last page. Everyone has a secret to tell in this story, and arguably the one takeaway of the story is the truth does not always set you free.

The storyline rather reminds me of Canterbury Tales, the literary tome by Geoffrey Chaucer, which is about a tale of pilgrims travelling in old England and how they each take turns to recount a story. Beyond this, the resemblance ends. Where Chaucer tells his tale in old English (*winces remembering how painful it was to read the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale for 'A' levels*), this story is narrated by Camelot, whose secret is perhaps the hardest to guess at.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but if you want an interesting read to take a couple of hours off, do consider this book. It has mystery, tragedy and drama rolled into one.

Thanks, G for the book!

Rating: 4 out of 5

"Kingdom Come" by J.G. Ballard

It took me an unusually long time to complete this book. But I stuck to my guns and finished it... eventually.

The plotline is mind-numbingly simple: newly-sacked advertising executive Pearson travels to suburban England from cosmopolitan London after he learns of his father's death from a random shooting in a suburban mall. In his quest to find his father's killer, he hopes to find the father he never knew as well as find some meaning in his own life. He becomes embroiled in a vast conspiracy which eventually embroils him in all the kitsch, glitter and façade of the consumerism sham.

My thoughts about the book, simply put: I don't like the book because it is disturbing and way out in the weird curve. Before doing this review, I did some research and learnt that Ballard is well-known for creating dark and pessimistic landscapes of the world. His vision of the world usually invokes the wasteland and post-modern decay at its most bleak form. No wonder.

Kingdom Come's extremity made it very depressing to follow, which accounted for why I stopped the book several times before finishing it. Notwithstanding, I have to concede that Ballard's prose and vision of a world dedicated to serving a consumerist god is rather compelling to follow.

The book left me with a mildly disturbing aftertaste in my mouth, much in the way (Philip)Roth's books work for me.

Rating: 2 out of 5 geek points

Random trivial: Ballard passed away in Apr 09 this year. Read more about him here.

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

I usually avoid mystery/thriller fiction. It's probably because I grew up reading a lot of it, Christopher Pike, then Stephen King, and well...good ol Dan Brown.

Am I ashamed to be caught reading the genre? In some way, I am. Mystery/thrillers (I'm not sure what's the exact term) seem to me to be a little too mass market, too accessible, too formulaic and hence, too popular. Then again, cheem books like Ulysses seem rather daunting.

Oh well, leaving that to be resolved another day, the last novel I finished was Company of Liars by Karen Maitland. There isn't a wiki on the novel so here's the Amazon page. The cover caught my eye some time ago, but I've been hesitant to pick it up cos I thought it might be a funky iteration of the Da Vinci code or something (the book is classified under 'Historical Fiction').

I'm glad I eventually bought it though cos I was hooked after the first few pages. Set in England during the spread of the plague in 1348, a ragtag bunch of misfits band together to escape the plague. Maitland tells the story very well, she manages to transport me to the raw and grim setting of 14th century England, and follow her characters in their search for food, shelter, and escape. This is one mystery/thriller I will proudly read in public. 8 stars.