Subject: THE BROKEN LAND by Ian McDonald

From: [email-masked]
Date: 29 Sep 93 00:57:30 GMT

THE BROKEN LAND by Ian McDonald
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper

     THE BROKEN LAND is a well-written book, but the parallels between the
land of the book and modern Ireland are *so* obvious that I found myself
groaning more often than being enlightened.  The Confessors/Proclaimers
parallel to the Catholics/Protestants was bad enough, but when the
Confessors gain independence for the land except for the "nine northern
prefectures," I came very close to hurling the book at the wall.  Frequently
I felt that the parallels were closer to puns in some literary sense than to
a way to look at an old situation from fresh eyes.  This might work in a
humorous novel, but THE BROKEN LAND is not humorous.  It is an accurate
story of what happens in a land torn apart by religious (or racial, or
ethnic) strife.  This subject is certainly topical (alas), but the precise
parallels of the problem to Ireland make the book lose the universal quality
that it could have had.  It is not surprising that McDonald writes about
Ireland, and writes well, as his earlier KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY
proves, but he can also write very well in a multi-ethnic, non-specific
milieu (see his SPEAKING IN TONGUES collection and his DESOLATION ROAD), and
this makes this book particularly disappointing.  For someone who knew
nothing of Ireland, this would be an excellent book, but as it stands, its
total obviousness and specificity makes this the first Ian McDonald book of
the four I've read that I can't recommend.

%T      The Broken Land
%A      Ian McDonald
%C      New York
%D      October 1992
%I      Bantam Spectra
%O      trade paperback, US$10
%G      ISBN 0-553-37054-5
%P      322pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked] / [email-masked]