Year in (Book) Review:The Fig Eater

I finished this book a few weeks ago, and have been stalling all this time on writing the review. Even for a master procrastinator like me, that's a long time. And I finally figured out why: I just didn't like it that much, and revisiting it didn't sound fun.

The concept of The Fig Eater and of the author's inspiration behind writing it were really what grabbed my attention. I'm taking a writing class right now and so I'm really attuned to prompts and observations and happenings in the world, big and small, that could spark an idea for a story. Somehow (she doesn't explain) the author learned about an old Sigmund Freud case, widely acknowledged as one of the doctor's most resounding failures, and became intrigued by the teenage subject. His patient was a young woman he dubbed Dora; Freud analyzed and diagnosed her with hysteria in her late teens. Ms. Shields explains that she was fascinated by the little tidbits of information available on the case and the sordid stories surrounding the girl, and let her imagination form the early 20th century Viennese world in which she lived. And, in the case of the novel she loosely ties to the story, died. In fact, the character of Dora never actually appears alive in the story; instead, the author tells the stories of those who knew her and those who are exploring the strange circumstances around her death. (All made up by the author.)

Shields is an artist and editor by trade; this was her first novel. It had a really interesting style to it, but in the end I just couldn't enjoy it. Or in the beginning. Suspense and mystery books are fun when there's an underlying, almost tangible feeling of... well, suspense. As a reader, you're waiting for something ominous to happen, and if a writer is doing their job well you turn each page expecting and anticipating something bad or scary or jaw-dropping to happen. I gave Shields the benefit of the doubt through the first fifty or so pages, but after awhile I started to fear that the suspense was never really going to build, and nothing shocking was ever really going to happen. I was right. She creates a dark, kind of bleakly melancholy feel, but not a good kind. I'm not sure what a good kind of bleak melancholy would feel like, but I trust that it exists. Just not here.

Lots of potential, little delivery. Started off slowly, fizzled slowly, died slowly.