Eccentric Musings (jakaEM)

Quite an amazing journey of a book. Prior to (or, perhaps, instead of) a review, I point to the cover: it's fantastic. The moon, with the Sisters brothers' heads like dark eyes in a skull - and whose skull is that? Why, it's Shakespeare's, is it not?



Indeed, there is something Shakespearean about this book - in its primal motivations; its themes of guilt, blame and remorse; the thickness of family ties; the inevitable playing out of fate. A tragi-comic morality play - although I have to confess, while I like my comedy black, I missed the comedy here entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if there were Shakespearean allusions all over the place - likely to various history plays, of which I'm not well-read. If not in the broad strokes of the plot and characterization, certainly in the themes.

Mike Reynolds' - in his very fine review here - warns against comparisons (and rightly so), but I can't help myself as something was dogging me all the while reading this. It is this: Dead Man, a little known Jim Jarmusch-directed, Johnny Depp film (back before he sold his soul to Disney). Poetic, evocative, symbolic, allusive and surreal; shot in black and white, with a spare and haunting Neil Young soundtrack. You like this; try that.