Customer Reviews

Bizarre but brilliant - By: , 09 Jan 2002
This is one of the finest novels I have ever read, many have criticised it for its lack of plot (same goes for the Fassbinder film) but they have missed the point. Genet's exploration of a number of subjects - ego, sexuality (in terms of desire & narcisism), self-doubt, morality - is rarely surpassed.
The book has enough ideas to fill 20 novels, Genet moves from brilliant idea to brilliant idea sometimes spending only half a page on ideas that are jaw droppingin their insight into human behaviour.
The characters seem to be partly related to reality & partly sprung from Genet's fantasies. Although the book mainly deals with homosexuality Genet's utter understanding of his characters most private thoughts & the way people recognise & try to cope with desire makes it of interest to all. The immorality /amorality of the murderous aspects of the novel is basedin an almost unbearable sense of isolation, sexual neuroses & social ineptity than any sense of true evil. Surely any person with a sense of self awareness will regard this as a work of genius.