For frantic boast and foolish word
I finished Uris’s QB VII last night. I am kind of conflicted about it — on the one hand, I really enjoyed it. In fact, I stayed up last night until I finished it because I just had to know how it ended. On the other hand, the book is not very well written, it’s overlong, padded with useless exposition and it’s incredibly manipulative. Basically, the reason I enjoyed it is because I was thoroughly manipulated by it, and I don’t really like that. So, a mixed review.
The basic plot is that there’s this Polish doctor, Adam Kelno, who was in a concentration camp, and an American writer named Abe Cady who, 30 years later, writes a book called The Holocaust, in which he makes the offhand accusation that Kelno performed terrible surgical procedures during his time in the camp. Kelno sues Cady for libel, and the book mostly focuses on the trial that follows. A huge amount of the book is devoted to telling the personal stories of both Kelno and Cady — very little of which comes into play during the rest of the story. The trial itself is full of incredibly graphic descriptions of life in the concentration camps, insane experimentation, cruelty, etc. This is the manipulative part, of course — it’s very easy to evoke sympathy when you tell stories like this and Uris pulls no punches in his grab to get you to read his book.
The other main problem I had is that the central mystery — did Kelno do it or not? — is given away early and often, through a large number of “clues” that completely give away the answer. In a better book they would not have been so terrible, but they’re placed so poorly, they’re so jarring, and there are no red herring clues, so it’s incredibly clear what’s going on. I don’t think I’ll be reading many more of Uris’s books.
My current book is The Eyes of the Overworld, the second Dying Earth book from Jack Vance.