The Club Dumas (1993)

History, sex, demonology, old Europe, murder, and most importantly book are blended together by Pérex-Reverte into a seemlessly rollicking and engaging story. Our protagonist, Lucas Corso, a shameless and conniving book dealer (though his true profession is nothing as simple as that) is an everyman character - wandering down a path at the behest of another "greater" person - until the final chapters. Taking both narratives in hand as the reality of the situation becomes clear Corso breaks his own patterns, even as it seems as if other are doing it for him. His monickers (the rabbit and the wolf) muddle some of his lead in the story, as he never quite reaches the heights of one nor the simplicity of the other, but it is this lack of clarity that lends Corso true humanity and separates him from the stoniness of his travelling companion "Irene Adler." The girl is clearly not all she seems, yet I am not truely convinced (as Corso seems to be) about her Luciferian nature. If she is in fact a fallen angel she adds a certain something to the Miltonian themes of this novel, and if not she at least embodies the trouvled and surprisingly humanity persona quite well. If she truely is Lucifer incarnate, she has certainly proven the point that redemption/deliverance/damnation/enlightenment is given to those who seek it not. ( )

What a fun read that was going to be a five star book until the expedient and simplistic denouement. I admit having seen the film first, with an amazing performance by Johnny Depp (and directed by the pedophile rapist Roman Polanski) but as always, the book exceeded the film in almost every aspect.

While reading, I wrote that this was 'a book that makes me proud to have an education' and 'a book that makes me mourn the advent of the eBook'. To touch a real book, smell it and feel its contours in my hands, what glory! I wonder what will become of book collectors in the age of Kindles, iBooks and such things? I loved the insider knowledge the book deals in, from the linguistic to the analytical. I highlighted "But we all share a conspiratorial wink when we talk about certain magical authors and books. Those that made us discover literature without weighing us down with dogmas and teaching us rules." ( )

See my blog note on it:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/05/booknote-el-club-dumas-1992.html ( )

I don't know if it's my state of mind or what, but I just couldn't get into this book. Interesting premise, but not for me. ( )

I enjoyed about three quarters of this novel. Having read PerezReverte before I was prepared for an intelligent thriller. Alas, I began to find it turgid, overlong and, frankly, pretentious. Having lost interest in what happened next I finished reading a few pages before the end.