on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4.5/5 writing, 3/5 story
Pages: 536
Started: 15 June 2022
Finished: 18 June 2022
Summary:
In a simultaneously grim and scholarly tone, Richard narrates the events before and after a fateful murder. From the moment he entered the elitist Hampden College in Virginia, fresh off the plane from California with two suitcases and a financial aid package, he was inexplicably determined to enter its exclusive and almost cult-like Ancient Greek program. Led by the romanticized and brilliant professor Julian Morrow, it included five students with varying degrees of genius and ambition, but an uncanny group dynamic. As Richard became more enmeshed with the group, he began to realize just how complicated it was
Thoughts:
I simultaneously hated and loved this book. The entire middle half was miserable to read: It was three hundred pages of depression and addiction and covering up a murder while falling to pieces. I wasn't attached to any of the characters. Indeed, the farther I read, the more I hated each and every one of them. Everyone had flaws, and then dirty secrets on top of those flaws. Everyone was trapped in the collective secret of Bunny's murder, which drew out the worst in them. But the book was also beautiful in it's own way. The writing, for one, was lovely. The words themselves were put together in a way that screamed both dark academia and depression, which was the goal. The vocabulary used was also huge; I must have found fifty words I'd never heard before. I thought all the references to Greek, Latin, famous philosophers and writers and ancient novels were fascinating.
But more than anything, the voice of the writing felt nuanced and genuine. I can see how other people might find it annoying, but the introspective and capricious nature of Richard's perspective on things felt similar, in some ways, to the way my mind works. Maybe it was because he was seeing everything in hindsight by writing it long after the events of the story were over, but something about his exhaustingly endless analysis of those around him, of himself, and then of the analysis he was performing on himself, made his narration familiar.
Richard is, in essence, an outsider. He's estranged from his family. He's poor. He's entered the Ancient Greek program long after anything else. As one of the murderers, and also as the outsider, he has the unique ability to see the others in his group with some degree of clarity. This let him begin to show, by the second half of the book, the dually capable and psychopathic nature of Henry, the intense alcoholism of all of the characters, which they enabled in each other. Basically, Richard was able to both be guilty as one of their party, but also able to see how utterly fucked up the rest of the members of the group were. Their money may have made them seem invincible, but instead it really just enabled them to dig deeper holes for themselves.
My favorite parts were the beginning and the first half of the epilogue. The beginning had so much intrigue. I didn't know what was happening yet, and I desperately wanted to find out. Once we got to the murder, there was only stress about who was going to fall apart first, and if they were going to be caught. But the beginning of the epilogue was gorgeous. It was the most academia part of the entire book, I would say. It featured Richard, depressed and alone, reading classics late into the night. I love the image of that. The last few pages were horrible, though. They were a ridiculously mundane list of what had happened to "the other players in our story" which could have been framed in a much better way. The last page was lovely again, though, a confusing dream about Henry that brought a symbolic and almost fantastical close to the book.
I didn't really enjoy the experience of reading this book, but looking back now, I almost want to read it again. The book was incredibly complex, and had so much to say about the human condition. Perhaps some day, when my mental health is either really good or really bad, I'll read it again.
Words:
magnanimous (adj) generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or less powerful person
capricious (adj) given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour
fictive (adj) creating or created by imagination
mutability (n) liability or tendency to change
fatuous (adj) silly and pointless
dolorous (adj, literary) feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress
Flemish angels (n) painted angels in a gothic style from Flanders, Belgium
epicene (adj) having characteristics of both sexes or having no characteristics of either sex, or indeterminate sex
garrulous (adj) excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters
dative (adj) in Latin, Greek, German, and other languages, denoting a case of nouns and pronouns, and words in grammatical agreement with them, indicating an indirect or direct object or recipient
ablative (adj) relating to or denoting a case (especially in Latin) of nouns and pronouns (and words in grammatical agreement with them) indicating separation or an agent, indstument, or location
accusative (adj) relating to or denoting a case of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that expresses the object of an action or the goal of motion
fatuous (adj) silly and pointless
exegesis (n) critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture
ennui (n) a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement (on-wee)
discursive (adj) digressing from subject to subject
consternation (n) feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at the end of something unexpected
Erinyes (n) the greek furies, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone
Etruscan (adj) relating to ancient Eturia--a civilization that heavily influenced Roman culture--, its people, or its language
banal (adj) so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring
dormer (n) a window set vertically in a structure projecting through a sloping roof
stereopticon (n) a slide projector that combines two images to create a three-dimensional effect, or makes one image dissolve into another
bilious (adj) affected by or associated with nausea or vomiting; spiteful or bad-tempered
lacuna (n) an unfilled space or interval; a missing portion in a book or manuscript
pedantically (adv) in a way that gives too much attention to formal rules or small details
libretto (n) the text of an opera or other long vocal work
tracts (n) an area of indefinite extent
didactic (adj) intended to teach, particularly in having moral instructions as an ulterior motive
tamarack (n) a slender North American larch tree
parterres (n) a level space in a garden or yard occupied by an ornamental arrangement of flower beds
pergolas (n) an archway in a garden or park consisting of a framework covered with trained climbing or trailing plants
noun cases (n) grammatical ways writers show how nouns or pronouns relate to other words in a sentence; ex: from us
pedant (n) a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning
torpor (n) a state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy
dissimulation (n) concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character; pretense
mimeograph (n) a duplicating machine which produces copies from a stencil, now superseded by the photocopier
fallacious (adj) tending to deceive or mislead
scrum (n) a disorderly crowd of people or things
officiously (adv) volunteering ones services when they are neither asked for needed
largesse (n) generosity in bestowing money or gifts upon others
unaccountably (adv) for reasons that are hard to understand
exegisis (n) critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture
aphorism (n) a phity observation that contains a general truth, such as "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
epithets (n) an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned
libations (n) drinks poured out as offerings to a deity
omophagia (n) the eating of raw food, especially raw meat
simulacrum (n) an image or representation of someone or something
pyrrhic (adj) (of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor
alacrity (n) brisk and cheerful readiness
dyspeptic (adj) of or having indigestion or consequent irritability or depression
eminently (adj) to a notable degree; very
frisson (n) a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill (free-SOHN)
troglodyte (n) a person who lived in a cave, especially in prehistoric times; a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned
vitriolic (adj) filled with bitter criticism of malice
impetus (n) the force of energy with which a body moves; the force that makes something happen or happen more quickly
profligate (adj) recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources
votaries (n) a person, such as a monk or nun, who has made vows of dedication to religious service
incarnadine (n) a bright crimson or pinkish-red color
bereaved (adj) deprived of a close relation or friend through their death
(63 total)