Helpful Score: 2
An amazing bit of writing, remarkable for both its style and its intellectual honesty. Despite the fact that the fictional narrator is exceptionally unappealing, the author, James Wood, still manages to make us sense his despair, his inadequacy, and his worthiness as a fellow human being. This is an amazing feat. The theological and philosophical arguments are skillfully constructed and simultaneously wholly integral to the plot (and highly entertaining). Wood also seems to draw on a wealth of musical knowledge that is, in itself, quite dazzling and engrossing. A wonderful book that has made me feel all the better about life for having read it.
