Crowe's Requiem

This is a genuinely odd little book about a man, who could be an angel who fell to Earth and emerged from his mother’s womb without wings but with a constant itch in the place where they should be. The man, who takes the name Crowe, grows up under the tutelage of his seemingly immortal grandfather, enters the world, falls in love, grows old and dies, all in the space of about 20 years. This book has one foot planted firmly in the real world and one in the surreal world, which makes it quite an interesting read. Crowe’s life barely encompasses 230 pages, but the character captures the reader’s imagination and leaves us mourning for a very human fallen angel.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2244624.html

Crowe is drawn partly from Oskar in Die Blechtrommel, in that he has a biologically unusual childhood and adolescence, and then like Stephen Dedalus he heads off to university in Dublin. Though in fact his experience is closer to that of the unnamed protagonist of At Swim-Two-Birds, with some turns of phrase particularly in the first half of the book sounding very Flann O'Brien-ish. Crowe goes through sinister medical experiences and emotional trauma with his lover, and does not get a happy ending; and we wonder a little how reliable a narrator he has been. I felt a little let down by the ending, but most of the book was very good, and I am surprised not to have heard more about it.