Melanie Bartlett

I finished this book because I kept hoping that what I had read so far would start to come together and make sense but it reminded me of those works of post-modern art that you feel you should understand but secretly, you really don’t. My favourite sections were about Orkideh. She was the character I wanted to follow and not Cyrus. I found Cyrus selfish and unworthy. It seemed strange that I just couldn’t engage with the protagonist. The novel is fragmented into the stories of many characters who are important to Cyrus but I lost track of them and so didn’t pick up on the links. I really wanted to enjoy this novel but I found that I had to make a lot of effort to finish it and I’m not sure I’m any clearer about its purpose.