I do own it, but it didn't fully satisfy me despite having many interesting scenes. Perhaps I should give it another chance one of these days, as I do often find myself talking about it.
perhaps! i will own that it is not very holmesian, but i like how cullin uses holmes as a sort of tool in exploring some of the fundamental mysteries of life. i think he said in an interview that he started writing the book without the main character being holmes, but a original character who was an old man, who was perhaps a detective in his youth. then as he was working on it he realised that holmes was really who he was writing about, in a strange way, and decided to skip the middleman and make the old man holmes.
i used to have SO MANY holmes pastiches (i got rid of a lot of my books when i kept moving every few months, but i've still got a couple shelves of holmes), and i've read even more from libraries and such. when i first started i liked regular pastiches -- i.e., conan doyle could have written that! but eventually i became rather bored with that -- if i want doyle, i have him, you know? and i was always more enthralled with the "more than" category, which is why some of my favourite books and stories are the crazy ones, the ones where holmes in an android in the future or fighting the occult or that just approach the whole thing from a different direction than normal.
Have you ever read Mister Clive & Mister Page by Neil Bartlett?
no! but it looks damned interesting. *puts on mental to-read list*
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Date: 2009-02-01 08:49 pm (UTC)perhaps! i will own that it is not very holmesian, but i like how cullin uses holmes as a sort of tool in exploring some of the fundamental mysteries of life. i think he said in an interview that he started writing the book without the main character being holmes, but a original character who was an old man, who was perhaps a detective in his youth. then as he was working on it he realised that holmes was really who he was writing about, in a strange way, and decided to skip the middleman and make the old man holmes.
i used to have SO MANY holmes pastiches (i got rid of a lot of my books when i kept moving every few months, but i've still got a couple shelves of holmes), and i've read even more from libraries and such. when i first started i liked regular pastiches -- i.e., conan doyle could have written that! but eventually i became rather bored with that -- if i want doyle, i have him, you know? and i was always more enthralled with the "more than" category, which is why some of my favourite books and stories are the crazy ones, the ones where holmes in an android in the future or fighting the occult or that just approach the whole thing from a different direction than normal.
Have you ever read Mister Clive & Mister Page by Neil Bartlett?
no! but it looks damned interesting. *puts on mental to-read list*