Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'the numbing of the moral sense', 19 Mar 2008
From Marlowe's Faust:
Faust: How comes it then that thou art out of hell?
Mephistopheles: Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
If that gives you a tingle of recognition, then this is the novel for you.
This is the sequel to 'The Exorcist' - which is fine, but in the same way that 'The Lord of the Rings' is sequel to 'The Hobbit.'
Homicide Detective Bill Kinderman, a peripheral character in the original, is on two cases at once - the hunt for an apparently back-from-the grave serial killer, and the resolution of the most baffling, monstrous, overriding problem of all - the material world, aka Evil.
If this novel gets to you, you will inevitably re-read it because of the levels it works on and the chinese puzzle it is - fixed firmly in the Georgetown locale of the original and grounded in the benevolent family man Kinderman (with his leavening dry humour), it combines effective police procedural and supernatural horror (Blatty does a superb line in demonic dialogue.) But the real reason it should stay on the shelves is because it looks long, hard and unflinchingly at the problem of Evil - Kinderman reaches a resolution of sorts, and it is certainly satisfying in the context of the book (the epilogue you will love) but of course it is an open question, and so the book will never stale.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
A book in search of an editor, 20 Jun 2009
Ostensibly a semi-sequel to the brilliant 'The Exorcist', 'Legion' promises much, but proves ultimatley unsatisfactory. It appears to be two wholly unrealted books tied into one. The first book (the interesting one) revolves around Detective William Kinderman, a minor character in The Exorcist, hunting down a killer, believed to have been dead for twelve years, (incedently the same time as young Reagan McNeill found herself posssessed) and encountering a series of increasingly bizarre and impossible murders.
Sadly, this interesting story is wrapped in a dreadful and dreary attempt by the author to convince the reader of God's existence and the wonders of the Roman Catholic faith.
The character of Kinderman is central to the novel, but he quickly proves annoying and impossible. The reader is forced to plow through Kinderman's enfuriating stream of consciousness, in which he prattles on endlessly about how God MUST exist, evolution ain't all it's cracked up to be and how Intelligent Design is a great idea. Every fifty pages or so a killing takes place and the same formula repeats itself; someone asks Kinderman a question about the murder, Kinderman drones on about how Himalayan bees or bluebirds prove the existence of God beyond doubt for about three pages, before finishing off with a line about the crime. As often as not the detective talks in a stream of consiousness style as well, punctuated by lines like 'Am I right? Who knows? Do you? I don't, but then again maybe I do. My father was a great believer in pomade, wasn't it? Is he? Don't answer that...'
Real people would find Kinderman a pain in the neck and borderline insane. His wife and co-workers seem to view him as a kind of prophet/saint.
This might be forgivable on some level if the Kinderman character weren't an offensive stereotype and one dimensional sock puppet for the author. Kinderman is a Jew, or rather a cartoon version of a Jew. His speech is straight of the 'Oy voy! Schtick! Schlub! Putz!' school of stereotyping, while his homelife is full of bagels, matzahs and overbearing Jewish mothers.
Worse still, Kinderman is a Jew for Jesus apparently. He has an encylopedic knowledge of the Gospels, praises Christ at various points in the book and seems to spend all of his time reading about Catholic doctrine or hanging out with Catholic priests. Despite being a devout believer and a Jew, at no point does he think about Moses, the Torah or rabbinical teaching.
If this novel were stripped of all the unnecessary pro-Catholic preaching, there would be just enough story for a fifty page novella. This would make the book a third the size, and thirty-thousand times better.
While it does pick up significantly in the second half, this fails to make up for the appalling rubbish of the first 150 pages.
If you liked the novel of the Exorcist, don't waste your time with this. It's a good idea wrapped up in shoddy execution and the kind of garden variety philosophical ramblings that would embarass a stoned college student.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Half a book hidden in a whole one, 9 Feb 2009
which is unfortunately the second half. The first 150 pages of the book comprise mainly of Kinderman - who I think of as a Jewish Colombo - bumbling around and thinking, dreaming or monologuing his theories on God, creation and good and evil.
I refer to this as the Crichton syndrome, whereby the author seems to think it is OK and interesting to use a character to deliver an essay to the reader on what they think on a subject. Especially in the Jurassic Park books. No, it is dull and in this instance led me away from the main story of the Gemini killer and possession into something I wasn't expecting or really appreciated.
Despite two murders there is little movement on the story until page 150, which is entitled Part 2. Until this point you actually notice when the story progresses as there are so few and far instances that they stand out amongst the essays and it also gives false hope that the story is going to get going, but it doesn't.
After this there are only 100 pages to deal with what Blatty does best and what made The Exorcist such a good read, which is possession. Unfortunately it is over before it starts and left me thinking I could have missed out the first 150 pages and not missed much at all.
It could have been a good story if it had started at page 150 and there were another 250 afterwards, but there isn't, so if you want existential essays with a short story bolted on then knock yourself out, but if you are expecting another Exorcist it isn't here.
From what I can tell The Exorcist is still in print and this isn't. That to me says a lot.
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