3 out of 4 stars
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A story within a story, about an Author and his characters is the basis of My Author is Dead by Michel Bruneau. The main character is Adam, and the story follows him from an early age. The author tries to steer the reader in the wrong direction but the ending is more less what I expected from the opening chapters. That is not to say there weren’t many surprises along the way.
Adam lives at a time when the telegraph was a new invention. He also lives in a town that believes that everything happens by the will of the Author. A strange twist on religion and I was confused about this at first, but after a while, I worked out what was going on. Not believing in the author is heresy, which is punishable with torture. It is through this torture that they re-educate the heretic in the true faith. People from other villages have different beliefs and so there is tension between the villages.
Cassandra is a nosy busy body, always looking for someone not following the rules. She can then report them and be the envy of her peers. Though not very welcome by her victims. She liked to follow Adam around, so he found the only way to ditch her was to get up early and go play in the forest. During one such trip, Adam runs into June, and they become friends. Cassandra had wondered where her prey had disappeared to, and managed to follow Adam on this day. She sees them together and reports it. During his re-education, his arm is badly broken, and he loses 90% of its functionality.
By the time Adam is fifteen he ends up on the wrong side of the law again. He is awaiting trial, conviction and being tortured to death! How he got to this position, why and what the Author has to do with it, you’ll have to read to find out.
At first I found this story very confusing, as the story starts with no real explanation of what is going on. It takes several chapters to work it all out. Though rereading those chapters after you have really brings the story out. After that I found the story easy to follow, though I had to keep looking up unfamiliar words, as Marc uses a lot of them.
I loved the way that all the leaders smelt bad, but each one in his own way. Kind of like how movies always make the bad guys smoke heavily. The way these smells where described made my nose wrinkle in disgust. I didn’t like the way that these leaders thought they were never wrong, and everyone went along with whatever actions they deemed necessary with barely a word of protest.
The author has a tremendous grasp of the English language, that being said I did find about a dozen grammar mistakes in the book with most of them being towards the end. I found the storyline straightforward, though a bit contrived in places. There was also a section where Adam supposedly meets the Author! That ends with the Author’s death, but no explanation is made as to why the story then continues. This leads me to deduct a star from rating and therefore the rating for the book is 3 out of 4 stars. I think this book will appeal to anyone who likes underdog stories. There are a lot of description about the torture process and its effects, so I wouldn’t recommend that anybody who is squeamish should read this.
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My Author Is Dead
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