The Club Dumas

The first book report! I feel like I'm back in fifth grade. Anyways... Book number 138 on my list is The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. At some point as I was trolling through amazon to figure out a bit of what the book is about I found a description which called it a "thinking man's thriller", which I believe to be a rather confusing label, but I prefer to label it as a literary thriller. The main character, Corso, is a book dealer who isn't afraid to pander to some of the unpleasant aspects of biblio-lust, and makes his money chasing down old manuscripts and books. There are two books central to the mystery- The Three Musketeers and a book of the author's own invention, The Nine Doors, a manual to summoning the devil. Both books fall into the main characters hands in the first few chapters. An acquaintance was found hanging from the strap of his own bathrobe in what appeared to be mysterious circumstances while in possession of a rare manuscript of a chapter from The Three Musketeers which subsequently fell into Corso's hands. This touches off an international chase in which characters from the book appear to be chasing after the hero and preventing him from fulfilling his obligations with respect to the second book, The Nine Doors.

This was a fun read, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had remembered more from The Three Musketeers which I seem to remember reading when I was 12 (it is back on the to be read list- reading The Club Dumas has cemented the realization that this distant memory doesn't fulfill the requirement of having read the book). The book is peppered with allusions to the adventures that the three heroes of the older novel as well as those of a few villains.

Perhaps the allusion to older literature is what makes this book a "thinking man's thriller", which would possibly make me not a thinking man (however, being a girl, I already doubted this assessment). At any rate, despite my lack of familiarity with the original novel I did enjoy this as a thriller, but I don't view it as much more than that, it was a fun book without much insight into a culture or with much character depth. I was additionally rather frustrated with a few of the characters and their supposed motivations (spoilers follow from this point). There were only two strong female characters in this book (but there were a total of maybe 5-6 main characters in all, so perhaps these two strong female characters is not a bad average), and I rather enjoyed Liana Taillefer who was devoted to maintaining the guise and memory of her favorite character from The Three Musketeers, Milady. She offered and enacted the opinion that the four main characters of the original novel (and the characters who echoed the originals in this novel) were not heroes but rather opportunistic misogynists. I adored Liana. The other strong female character was never given a name and was referred to at times as "the girl" and at other times as "Irene Adler" in reference to the Sherlock Holmes villain. (As I mentioned earlier, spoilers are coming, this is the second and final warning) The girl is the physical embodiment of a fallen angel and a compatriot of the devil who has fallen in love with the main character, Corso. And while I enjoy that she was able to deliver a good ass-kicking, I just did not understand her character or her relationship with Corso. It could be that I am just not attracted to older guys who spend their time cheating widows out of their property and traipse off in search of old manuscripts, but I just don't know what she saw in him. Ok, rant over, it is a personal issue.

At various times during the novel, Corso, amazed at the bizarre circumstances he appeared to be in would make allusions to the possibility that he himself was in a novel, moving as the author directed him to, which provided a bit of meta-amusement.

A fun read but not a book that will haunt me or stay with me for a long time (or make it to my favorites list). I am now starting to read A Light Comedy by Eduardo Mendoza, which, at least judging from the cover, is neither light, nor a comedy.