Update: Oh, I clean forgot to ask if anybody on goodreads gets the thing about the moles. I'm DESPERATE, please explan it to me.



I’m with Jessica on this one. The Guardian review at the time said shades of Hardy, Steinbeck, Faulkner, but it isn’t. It is existential, for Jessica it evokes Camus, I’d say Frisch too. The facile description, as the Guardian review goes on, of this as a ‘crime story’ beggars belief. Well, unless that’s how you’d label The Outsider too. Or The Bible.

Rest here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/the-quarry-by-damon-galgut... ( )

Update: Oh, I clean forgot to ask if anybody on goodreads gets the thing about the moles. I'm DESPERATE, please explan it to me.



I’m with Jessica on this one. The Guardian review at the time said shades of Hardy, Steinbeck, Faulkner, but it isn’t. It is existential, for Jessica it evokes Camus, I’d say Frisch too. The facile description, as the Guardian review goes on, of this as a ‘crime story’ beggars belief. Well, unless that’s how you’d label The Outsider too. Or The Bible.

Rest here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/the-quarry-by-damon-galgut... ( )

Update: Oh, I clean forgot to ask if anybody on goodreads gets the thing about the moles. I'm DESPERATE, please explan it to me.



I’m with Jessica on this one. The Guardian review at the time said shades of Hardy, Steinbeck, Faulkner, but it isn’t. It is existential, for Jessica it evokes Camus, I’d say Frisch too. The facile description, as the Guardian review goes on, of this as a ‘crime story’ beggars belief. Well, unless that’s how you’d label The Outsider too. Or The Bible.

Rest here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/the-quarry-by-damon-galgut... ( )

Written in a minimalist style that's somewhat reminiscent of Hemingway, this is a quiet tale that, at the same time, carries with it an urgency and a weight. Even now, I'm finding it hard to know what to say about it. On one hand, I feel unfinished--though the story is done and the ending chapter was gorgeous, and finishing, I still want to know more of what the characters were thinking, feeling, experiencing, and where they'd come from. I want to know what was going on between the lines, between the chapters, and more of what drove the inertia that seemed so inevitable, and so incredibly simple, though it was anything but the last. At the same time, much of the beauty of this small book comes in Galgut's paring down of a world to moments and to small decisions and interactions, and in his careful language, simple and straightforward and minimalist as it is.

I'll read more by Galgut. I may re-read this one, even. ( )

Damon Galgut's genius is stunningly developed and on full display in rich and complex novels like The Imposter and The Good Doctor. In these books he creates compelling drama by placing a protagonist, whose moral compass drifts as circumstances change, into a situation that is morally ambiguous to start with and becomes more so as the story progresses. The Quarry is similar but the characters and situations remain sketchy throughout. The novel begins with an unnamed man wandering along a road in a harsh, unforgiving landscape. Whatever quest he is on is left unspecified, though we learn before too long that he is a criminal on the run from the authorities. When he encounters a minister who is driving to a town to take up a new post, we can almost predict what is going to happen. He murders the minister, buries the body in a disused quarry and assumes the man's identity (and ministry). From this point the story mostly concerns itself with retribution, and when events conspire to expose him, the man once again goes on the run. The primary weakness of this book is glaring. Galgut never attempts to place his characters in a broader emotional context. The outpost town where the central action takes place is filled with loners and misfits, all of whom remain shadowy and emotionally distant from the reader. The only hints of human empathy arise between Valentine and Small, two petty thieves who are brothers. If the novel is compelling at all, it is because of the terse language that Galgut employs to effectively evoke a uniquely desolate South African landscape. That said, even a second tier novel by Damon Galgut is more interesting than most other writer's successful novels. The Quarry, impeccably written and maddeningly enigmatic, is a confident work by a writer who knows how to use story and language in painterly fashion to create the effect he wants. The problem is that in this case the effect he wants is one that will leave some readers cold. ( )