Book Review: Labyrinth - Amanda Lohrey

Jesus Christ this sucked. Somehow it won the Miles Franklin award, but I thought it was almost completely terrible. The worst parts were the dialogue and the completely unmotivated, ham-fisted, disjointed, didactic narration on the symbols present in the story; most especially the labyrinth itself, but also the very very very obvious analogies between characters' different relationships. Until they opened their mouths, the characters themselves were fine, they were adequate sketches (with the possible exception of Erica's son, who only ever came off like an edgy teenager's idea of an edgy teenager), but as soon as they opened their mouth it was completely obvious that they were all written by a single author who has apparently never listened to actual human beings speak.

I think the fact that I read the song of Achilles just before made me hate Labyrinth more than I otherwise would have. The song of Achilles is completely seamless, I can see where there should be joints or ruptures, but somehow Miller's skill as an author glides silently over them. Labyrinth is the complete opposite, it feels like a half-assembled product of a creative writing program. A review of the book reads "A labyrinth is a powerful trope, and here it drives not only the narrative and Erica herself, but also blah blah blah blah". It's not the labyrinth that drives the narrative, but Lohrey's desire to muse boorishly on the labyrinth-as-symbol that prods the book towards its whimperingly dull conclusion.

But then again, after finishing the book, I did save a photo of the labyrinth at Chartres, so what do I know.