A review by ashleylm
The Affirmation by Christopher Priest

2.0

Much like the main character's muddled sense of reality, I often found myself enjoying this book, only to realise I was anticipating enjoying it rather than actually enjoying it, and the true pleasure of reading it never quite materialized. In fact, most of the time, my active feeling was one of annoyance. What was the author trying to do? It wasn't clear, it never became clear, and (annoyingly) it was never going to have become clear, which I wish I'd realised upon entry. I'm at ease with ambiguity and dreamlike settings (I loved Ishiguro's The Unconsoled for example) but this never cohered for me. Had he kept up a game of who-was-writing-who I think all would be well, but by the time we arrived at the "white pages" moment, he lots me entirely.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!