Creation

Defeated! DNF. This book defeated me, and I assumed that was my problem. But it defeated even my (usually very diligent) book club! And, even though I read through this at a sluggish, slogging pace, I did genuinely enjoy it! Ah, what to do.

Who created what
wise old men talk your ear off
nonsense, in the end.

For me Creation did not live up to its exciting premise. In fact, by the end there had been far too little Creation and far too much recounting of the petty intrigues of a bunch of obscure despots and kings in India and Cathay. There were moments of brilliance, like sparks bursting from the slumbering embers of Vidal's talent, but much of the book dragged, sometimes interminably. Cyrus Spitama barely rose off the paper, nor did any of the remarkable figures Vidal placed before him. The book only sputters into life at the court of Darius, and Atossa was to me the only character to show any depth and vitality. The narrative is loose, the dialogue is pedestrian, and the prose ordinary. Creation is a lost opportunity. It might have been brilliant.