Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Altar Of The Dead

The Altar Of The Dead was strange. Something easily guessed by the title. It is saturated with death. Again, this is something to be expected. Yet, there is more than just death. There is life and perhaps love.

I found myself distant from the story. Distant from the main character. Perhaps it was because I didn’t grasp how old he was at the beginning of the story. I thought he was middle-aged and tragedy just followed him. I didn’t realize that he was at that age when your friends begin dying around you. I realized his eventual age when he described going to the altar year after year.

Of course, I many not have understood because I’ve been sick and everything is kind of hazy. Though, it may be that the story didn’t connect with me. It was well written with interesting characters, who love and hate and grieve. They lived with a very real turmoil. Everything in their lives was in relation to this altar. For some reason, I just wasn’t as affected by this story as I was by James’ other works.

No comments:

Post a Comment