A review by iahk
The Marbled Swarm by Dennis Cooper

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No

2.25

regrettably unimpressed by this one. I tried to warm to the writing style but found it too tedious and almost cringeworthy more often than not, although there are the odd really fantastic paragraphs here and there which motivated me to keep reading. not only did I find the narrator obnoxious - not because of his depravity, actually, but because he often times reads like a teenager with a contrarian complex (oh, wait…). I’m also really not sure whether the inventiveness of both the “marbled swarm” and the labyrinthine structure of both the narrative and language is grossly overexaggerated or not. I don’t find the gruesome aspects of the book worth remarking on - in the sense that although I enjoy reading “”disturbing”” books, I’m largely indifferent to whether it elevates the story or not.

and to be fair, I am not that familiar with the works of, say, De Sade and Bataille (Cooper’s literary heroes) yet, and maybe The Marbled Swarm really isn’t an “inferior” version of a similar sort of story and the problem lies with me.