A Day and a Night and a Day

I’m having trouble here. I ran across this book last week in the new arrivals section of the library. Read the first few pages, got hooked. Read the jacket blurb and decided that it wasn’t really my type of book. Was in there again yesterday; the book was still there. Re-read the opening pages, ignored the jacket blurb, and picked it up. Got it home and pretty much read the whole thing in one sitting. Really enjoyed it. The trouble is that I can’t think of a way to describe it that would make me want to read it. All I can say is that, unlikely as it may seem, I think you’d enjoy this.

It’s one of those novels that’s just sort of about life. There are personal stories and philosophical kibitzing. There’s love and loss. There’s drama, irony, and humor. It’s well-written, compelling, complex, and thought-provoking. So yeah, sounds like an Oprah book so far. It even has a recurring thread about ethnic identity. The twist, which pushes it clean through “intriguing” and out the other side to “disturbing” is that the core of the story is about our protagonist being tortured. Um, okay…

Like I said, I can’t figure out how to make this sound appealing, but somehow it really works. It’s less political than you’d expect. It’s not even particularly violent (though not for the squeamish). I’m pretty sure I’ll want to re-read this, and I definitely want to chase down other books by this Glen Duncan guy. So I’ll tell you what: Go to Amazon and read the excerpt. Don’t read the front flap. If you like that much, you’ll probably like the book. If you’re still not sure, get it from the library.