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juushikaTitle: The Museum at Purgatory
Author: Nick Bantock
Published: New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 115
Total Page Count: 70,299
Text Number: 204
Read For: recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yuki_onna, checked out from the library
Short review: The Curator of the Museum at Purgatory chronicles the museum's collections as well as the collectors themselves, as they assess their lives and decide their destination in the afterlife. In the end, the Curator must remember and assess his own life, with his collectors and his collection as his guide. Part art, part text, a rich and dreamlike fantasy tale, The Museum at Purgatory is unusual and incredible, with an inventive fantasy setting to sweep the reader away and meaningful truths to make his journey worthwhile. Highly recommended.
"While studying the images within this volume, the reader should be reminded that the Museum houses objects whose history is authentic but whose actuality fails to reside in the regular precepts of normality," warn the curator. Like an art book, The Museum at Purgatory balances photographs of objects against text which explains and interprets them. These objects range from the fantastic to the mundane, and the text chronicles how they came to be collected and what they mean to their collector. To say the least, this is an unusual style for a fiction novel—but The Museum at Purgatory is brilliant in its strangeness.
The fantasy of the setting and the collections is detailed yet dreamlike, and so it captures the reader's imagination and pulls him deep into the story. But as art often does, the fantasy lies—in plants which sprout bones, in magic rugs which display visions—in order to tell the truth. Through the collections, their collectors discover their fears, accomplishments, and identities; they assess their lives, exposing personal and fundamental truths for the reader to view alongside the art. Bantock's book is a beautiful combination of rich visuals with perceptive text, dreamlike fantasy betraying great truth. Delicate, inventive, and beautiful—this book is one of a kind, and I feel blessed to have read it. Not all readers may be receptive to the unusual style, but I recommended this book, enthusiastically, to everyone.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Nick Bantock
Published: New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 115
Total Page Count: 70,299
Text Number: 204
Read For: recommended by
yuki_onna, checked out from the libraryShort review: The Curator of the Museum at Purgatory chronicles the museum's collections as well as the collectors themselves, as they assess their lives and decide their destination in the afterlife. In the end, the Curator must remember and assess his own life, with his collectors and his collection as his guide. Part art, part text, a rich and dreamlike fantasy tale, The Museum at Purgatory is unusual and incredible, with an inventive fantasy setting to sweep the reader away and meaningful truths to make his journey worthwhile. Highly recommended.
"While studying the images within this volume, the reader should be reminded that the Museum houses objects whose history is authentic but whose actuality fails to reside in the regular precepts of normality," warn the curator. Like an art book, The Museum at Purgatory balances photographs of objects against text which explains and interprets them. These objects range from the fantastic to the mundane, and the text chronicles how they came to be collected and what they mean to their collector. To say the least, this is an unusual style for a fiction novel—but The Museum at Purgatory is brilliant in its strangeness.
The fantasy of the setting and the collections is detailed yet dreamlike, and so it captures the reader's imagination and pulls him deep into the story. But as art often does, the fantasy lies—in plants which sprout bones, in magic rugs which display visions—in order to tell the truth. Through the collections, their collectors discover their fears, accomplishments, and identities; they assess their lives, exposing personal and fundamental truths for the reader to view alongside the art. Bantock's book is a beautiful combination of rich visuals with perceptive text, dreamlike fantasy betraying great truth. Delicate, inventive, and beautiful—this book is one of a kind, and I feel blessed to have read it. Not all readers may be receptive to the unusual style, but I recommended this book, enthusiastically, to everyone.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
