The Witch Elm by Tana French
I was super excited about this book. I loved French's other books (the Dublin Murder Squad) and expected this one to be a continuation of that series. Alas, it was not, which in and of itself is not so bad. However, it was also nowhere near the caliber of her other books. I was, in a word, disappointed.
It was not all bad...her characteristic "Fair play" in the narrative was present (Kristi, you won't have to look far to see it!!) and the overall tone was classic Tana French. Toby's reminiscing about his vacation time spent at the family home with his cousins and his uncle's "benign neglect" as a caretaker made me smile; his wandering around the old family home just looking at what was the same and what was different-that evoked memories of doing the same thing at my grandmother's house when I'd go back after being away for some time. And there were some fun words that I noted for future reference: inchoate, ranunculus, rapacity, numinous...define those off the top of your head if you dare.
That said, here is what I wrote when I was on page 148/486: "Since the first page of this book the story is wandering...at this point, 150 pages in, it does not seem to be building towards anything its just aimlessly inching forward...this far in and I don't even know what's happening...not that there is some mystery and I don't get where its going I literally don't even know whats so mysterious at all. The hints and forewarnings are more annoying than informative and God do I find this Melissa character annoying, and annoyingly passive, and so plan vanilla dull that I wonder our friend Toby finds her attractive at all...and while she's remarkably dull, there is not really a single character so far in this book that has anywhere near the chutzpa of say a Frank...so far not thrilled with this book...it'll get better, right?"... Sadly, for this reader, it did not.
In some ways, this book seemed to be reaching for something and just simply never getting there. In the wake of the Kavenaugh hearings and in the midst of the #MeToo# movement a story about a young man reeking of white privilege who has a come to Jesus experience might be just the ticket but the book fails on this account- Toby never quite gets there and whether that's French's failure as a writer or Toby's failure as a character I'm not quite sure but failure I think it is.
And spoiler alert here, if you plan to read the book just stop here and circle back after you have read the book...seriously...
I'm all about willing suspension of disbelief but this book left me without even the energy to suspend. The burglary was unsatisfactory from beginning to end, the upset over the skull seemed disproportionate to the situation for everyone except the culprit: I think if someone found a skull in my yard and I was innocent I'd be fascinated and curious not upset and disturbed. I also found Toby's unreliable narrator routine soooooo annoying. He was certain that one person was completely innocent; then it turned out not to be true and he did not even acknowledge his error. If the narrator is going to tell the story, I think we should be able to tell when he is mistaken, or at least come to the realization along with the narrator, not just figure it out and never have the narrator 'fess up. Or maybe I missed it and it was brilliance on French's part, and we were supposed to embrace that the head injury did not just mess Toby up in the story, the very telling of the story was messed up. But I don't buy that.
And the final scene with the detective? You are trying to tell me that this guy who can't hold a steady glass, whose eyes fall out of focus, whose leg is weak, who for months on end does nothing more strenuous than walk up and down the stairs of the Ivy House and who has been eating what can only be described as a take-out diet for quite a long time is able to single handedly do that to a trained, prepared, healthy officer of the law? It felt like a cop-out (literally) to get to some conclusion which was a long, long, long time coming.
End result? Book too long, character's too untenable, story that tried but failed to be compelling, setting that was memorable but not quite strong enough to play what was essentially intended to be another character in the book...and finally, and this just drove me simply BATTY-throughout the book the tree was referred to as a "wych elm" why oh why oh WHY did they name the book "The Witch Elm"?????
Rating: See below for definitions...if it weren't by Tana French, I would have given this a #6, Bareable, Just Barely. Because it was by her, and I just love her work, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and provide a #5 Good Enough...and also because I want other people to read this and let me know what they think...Plus even if I did not "like" it, I was invested enough in it to read close to 500 pages and to write one of my longer reviews so there must be something to it...
Good Enough/ #5 /Didn't like it per se, didn't dislike it. Wouldn't recommend it, wouldn't discourage it. Not necessarily a waste of money or time, but probably wouldn't dedicate those resources to it again.
Bearable, Just Barely/ #6 / Probably a waste of resources but there was something about it that was ok. If-you-have-nothing-else-to-read-try-it
It was not all bad...her characteristic "Fair play" in the narrative was present (Kristi, you won't have to look far to see it!!) and the overall tone was classic Tana French. Toby's reminiscing about his vacation time spent at the family home with his cousins and his uncle's "benign neglect" as a caretaker made me smile; his wandering around the old family home just looking at what was the same and what was different-that evoked memories of doing the same thing at my grandmother's house when I'd go back after being away for some time. And there were some fun words that I noted for future reference: inchoate, ranunculus, rapacity, numinous...define those off the top of your head if you dare.
That said, here is what I wrote when I was on page 148/486: "Since the first page of this book the story is wandering...at this point, 150 pages in, it does not seem to be building towards anything its just aimlessly inching forward...this far in and I don't even know what's happening...not that there is some mystery and I don't get where its going I literally don't even know whats so mysterious at all. The hints and forewarnings are more annoying than informative and God do I find this Melissa character annoying, and annoyingly passive, and so plan vanilla dull that I wonder our friend Toby finds her attractive at all...and while she's remarkably dull, there is not really a single character so far in this book that has anywhere near the chutzpa of say a Frank...so far not thrilled with this book...it'll get better, right?"... Sadly, for this reader, it did not.
In some ways, this book seemed to be reaching for something and just simply never getting there. In the wake of the Kavenaugh hearings and in the midst of the #MeToo# movement a story about a young man reeking of white privilege who has a come to Jesus experience might be just the ticket but the book fails on this account- Toby never quite gets there and whether that's French's failure as a writer or Toby's failure as a character I'm not quite sure but failure I think it is.
And spoiler alert here, if you plan to read the book just stop here and circle back after you have read the book...seriously...
I'm all about willing suspension of disbelief but this book left me without even the energy to suspend. The burglary was unsatisfactory from beginning to end, the upset over the skull seemed disproportionate to the situation for everyone except the culprit: I think if someone found a skull in my yard and I was innocent I'd be fascinated and curious not upset and disturbed. I also found Toby's unreliable narrator routine soooooo annoying. He was certain that one person was completely innocent; then it turned out not to be true and he did not even acknowledge his error. If the narrator is going to tell the story, I think we should be able to tell when he is mistaken, or at least come to the realization along with the narrator, not just figure it out and never have the narrator 'fess up. Or maybe I missed it and it was brilliance on French's part, and we were supposed to embrace that the head injury did not just mess Toby up in the story, the very telling of the story was messed up. But I don't buy that.
And the final scene with the detective? You are trying to tell me that this guy who can't hold a steady glass, whose eyes fall out of focus, whose leg is weak, who for months on end does nothing more strenuous than walk up and down the stairs of the Ivy House and who has been eating what can only be described as a take-out diet for quite a long time is able to single handedly do that to a trained, prepared, healthy officer of the law? It felt like a cop-out (literally) to get to some conclusion which was a long, long, long time coming.
End result? Book too long, character's too untenable, story that tried but failed to be compelling, setting that was memorable but not quite strong enough to play what was essentially intended to be another character in the book...and finally, and this just drove me simply BATTY-throughout the book the tree was referred to as a "wych elm" why oh why oh WHY did they name the book "The Witch Elm"?????
Rating: See below for definitions...if it weren't by Tana French, I would have given this a #6, Bareable, Just Barely. Because it was by her, and I just love her work, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and provide a #5 Good Enough...and also because I want other people to read this and let me know what they think...Plus even if I did not "like" it, I was invested enough in it to read close to 500 pages and to write one of my longer reviews so there must be something to it...
Good Enough/ #5 /Didn't like it per se, didn't dislike it. Wouldn't recommend it, wouldn't discourage it. Not necessarily a waste of money or time, but probably wouldn't dedicate those resources to it again.
Bearable, Just Barely/ #6 / Probably a waste of resources but there was something about it that was ok. If-you-have-nothing-else-to-read-try-it
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