A review by emilybh
The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall
3.0
‘Tattooing was [...] its very own art form, old as the hills and stranger than time. Whether in rich, far-flung resorts or condemned cottages, glamorous prestige or ragged poverty, human hearts and souls were variable and would always require painting.’
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The Electric Michelangelo is an atmospheric and darkly satisfying novel. It follows Cy, from his childhood in a hotel in Morecambe Bay to his apprenticeship to the tattooist Eliot Riley and his journey to Coney Island, New York. Hall’s writing is unrelenting and vivid, to the point that sections of dialogue provide breathing space. I loved the early chapters, but struggled through the section where Cy learns his craft, and was relieved when the novel changed pace in its second half. Whilst the main character felt obscure to me, and his dialogue often stilted, Hall is adept at drawing out human conflicts and desires. Here this takes shape in the symbols that people choose to have inked onto their skin. The result is a deeply coloured, intensely told and tricky novel.
.
The Electric Michelangelo is an atmospheric and darkly satisfying novel. It follows Cy, from his childhood in a hotel in Morecambe Bay to his apprenticeship to the tattooist Eliot Riley and his journey to Coney Island, New York. Hall’s writing is unrelenting and vivid, to the point that sections of dialogue provide breathing space. I loved the early chapters, but struggled through the section where Cy learns his craft, and was relieved when the novel changed pace in its second half. Whilst the main character felt obscure to me, and his dialogue often stilted, Hall is adept at drawing out human conflicts and desires. Here this takes shape in the symbols that people choose to have inked onto their skin. The result is a deeply coloured, intensely told and tricky novel.