Book of the Most Precious Substance

The word “uneven” is used frequently in book reviews, but I’ve stayed away from it because I’ve always thought it was too vague. Does the reviewer mean that the quality of the writing is uneven? That some elements of the story are better than others? But when I finished reading The Book of the Most Precious Substance, by Sara Gran, the only adjective I could come up with for this strange, unsatisfying book is uneven. But I won’t leave you to wonder what I mean by uneven, I promise...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.<.i>

I love Sara Gran and I work with rare books and know people in the book trades and also, as it turns out, I can achieve the key goal the lead character is trying to achieve for her spell casting. Do I believe in sex magic? not really. Do I think this is accurate about the book trade? not at all. Do I think it’s a good escape book? Yes, I do.

Es war schon unterwegs klar, dass das ein Buch ist, das vor allem von langweiligen Ideen vom Schönen Leben handelt: täglich in eine andere Großstadt fliegen (L.A., New Orleans, Paris, München, noch ein paar), Beschreibung des Hotels, detaillierte Beschreibung der dort eingenommenen Mahlzeiten, der reichen Leute, die man dort kennenlernt (und die für diese Mahlzeiten bezahlen), der Häuser dieser reichen Leute, perfekter, aber undetaillierter Sex, langweilige Kink-Chateaus. Aber ich dachte, dass wenigstens die Handlung irgendwohin führt. Tut sie aber nicht.