Little Gods

I loved this book. It took me a few pages to acclimatise to the style but I was soon wrapped up in it. There is something magical or surreal about the storytelling and the language, but the writing also has an earthy quality, a sort of pragmatism that grounds it in the real world. The book was full of expressions and images that I've never heard before - fantastically imaginative stuff. A writer with this much pyrotechnic enthusiasm could easily distract from the story, but that never happened. The strength of feeling I had for Jean, and even some of the less likeable characters, pulled me through the unusual language of the book so that I hardly noticed after a while. It worked its magic subconsciously somehow, and it made me think hard about my own attitudes to other people. Not a lot of books have done that. This is a story I will read again, probably quite soon. I keep remembering passages that were just beautiful.