05 February 2007

Not Wanted on the Voyage - Timothy Findley

http://deathfrombelow.wordpress.com/files/2006/08/014024117501_ss500_sclzzzzzzz_v1141257650_.jpg

Date: February 5th, 2007
Recommendation: Much like the boat ride, this book has its bright days and its dreary moments

The story of the Great Flood, reinterpreted in the form of a modern fable. Most, if not all religions - for that matter most belief structures - contain the story of a flood of some kind. I guess the idea is that the source (i.e. humans) has become unclean and must be purged. Not wanted on the voyage begins with the flood, throws in some unicorns and dragons, and even presents a guest appearance by the head honcho himself, Yahweh.

Findley enriches this central theme with likable characters, heroic feline efforts, some interesting animal-human interactions, and the entire Noyes family. His plot, however lacks fluidity, to continue the hydrological theme. There are gaps in character development, and in subplots. Because of this, I would say that Findley fails to meet the full potential of the brilliance that occasionally shines through the rain.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, did the cat finally get interesting?

And, I'm excited to hear how you like "The Inheritance of Loss".

Anonymous said...

I know this is a little delayed - but since I only found out about this blog this week, I think I can be forgiven. Just wanted to say thank you for validating my opinion that this was weak work by Findley. I got RAKED over the coals by some friends of mine for suggesting that anything he wrote was less than genius. But I didn't like this. At all.