Reviews

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

nick_jenkins's review against another edition

Unco good!

lmrising's review against another edition

dark funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

fillireads's review against another edition

3.0

Bu kitap sayesinde James Hogg ile tanıştım. Çok ilginç bir hikayeye sahip olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Kitap iki bölümden oluşuyor. İlk bölümde dışa dönük, dindar sayılmayan ve meşru kabul edilen büyük kardeşin diğer bölüm ise içine kapanık, dindar ve meşru kabul edilmeyen küçük kardeşin hikayesini okuyoruz. İlk bölümü daha az beğendim. İkinci bölümde ise ilk bölümde olanların nedenleri açıklanıyor. Bazı yerler açık uçlu kalsa da Sonsöz kısmında kapsayıcı bir açıklama mevcut.

Küçük kardeş Robert, yazarın eleştirmek istediği her şeyin maşası olmuş. Hür iradesinin elinden alınması, sağa sola savrulması ve yaptıklarının sorumluluğunu almaması onu günahkar yapıyor. Robert tam iyi yolu bulacak derken her şey tepe taklak aşağı gidiyor. Çok beğendiğini söyleyemeyeceğim ancak hoş bir okumaydı.

sauna_mc's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this book very much. Metafictional narrative and exploration of religion and identity got me thinking. Same thing I liked about His Bloody Project. About every 5 pages I kept thinking I should have read this for uni like I was fucking supposed to.

shaunnow38's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

janice_72's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

rustycups's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

peterp3's review

1.0

This was written in the early 1800s and set in the early 1700s. The blurb sounded interesting, exploring the idea that if someone is predestined to be one of the elect, it makes no difference what sins they commit.
But unfortunately the writing style is so heavy and tedious that the book is virtually unreadable, and it was becoming a chore just to turn to the next page. So I gave up!
Much better to read the book of Romans in the Bible to explore the themes of sin and grace, justification and predestination. Paul sums it up well in Romans 6:15: “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

smayp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

tombomp's review against another edition

3.0

Religion is a sublime and glorious thing, the bonds of society on earth, and the connector of humanity with the Divine nature; but there is nothing so dangerous to man as the wresting of any of its principles, or forcing them beyond their due bounds: this is of all others the readiest way to destruction. Neither is there anything so easily done. There is not an error into which a man can fall which he may not press Scripture into his service as proof of the probity of

It's a good read, but the problem is that it doesn't really go further than what you'd get from the blurb. Especially once you get to the memoir itself, you've already read "the plot" so to speak and the first person perspective is just him saying "I am part of the elect, wow this is so great" and

Spoiler

"this guy who is blatantly the devil is telling me to murder people"

and although it's well written it feels predictable and somewhat padded with more events that work out the same way and doesn't really delve into anything deeper.

A strange thing is that the narrative forces you to accept the reality of the supernatural events depicted in the main.

Spoiler

There is never any doubt that Gil-Martin *is* the Devil, and there's no doubt he appears completely real to *everyone*, including his shapeshifting abilities. This makes interesting psychological readings harder to sustain. There are several parts which are suggestive of a kind of internal battle, but strangely the fact of the material supernatural makes understanding the sections where it appears it's somehow all in his head much harder. There are a few key sections - when Robert first meets Gil-Martin, when he comes home his mother and stepfather are convinced he has become a genuinely different person. Later on when it appears Gil-Martin is stalking his brother while Robert is sick for a month, he describes feeling like he's two people and yet not actually either person - the two are Gil-Martin and his brother. Near the end he has long gaps in his memory where he apparently both seduced a lady and forged something to force her family off their land, then later murdered her and his mother.

None of these fit in obvious ways with the behaviour of Gil-Martin in the rest of the book and the meaning is lost on me. Gil-Martin in the murders of the pastor and Robert's brother is obviously ensuring that Robert takes 100% of the responsibility (although Gil-Martin also appears to have murdered a judge by himself?) Yet on the memory lapses and the murders he's strangely vague. It feels like a lot more sinning went on and yet we're not only not privy to it but even the Devil doesn't goad him about it. I feel there was stuff going on in the ending that just passed me by

"Surely you are not such a fool," said I, "as to believe that the Devil really was in the printing office?"

"Oo, Gud bless you, sir! Saw him myself, gave him a nod, and good-day. Rather a gentlemanly personage—Green Circassian hunting coat and turban—Like a foreigner—Has the power of vanishing in one moment though—Rather a suspicious circumstance that. Otherwise, his appearance not much against him."