The Abomination: A Novel
by Paul Golding

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Book Reviews of The Abomination: A Novel

Book Review: A Proustian achievement
Summary: 4 Stars

Rarely in English literature does one encounter a more unlikable protagonist. Even during his school years, it's difficult to sympathize with James, in part because much of the alienation he experiences (particularly in the early years) is self-imposed. He is, in his own words, an "insufferable brat," an upper-class, spoiled-rotten snob who detests the philistine behavior of the English schoolboys whose very presence he must endure for eight years. His parents, although wealthy beyond what most of us can imagine, are negligent and self-absorbed, but compared with most of the world's youth (gay or otherwise), the young Zamora enjoys a life of luxury and coddling.

What saves the book from unendurable pretentiousness is Golding's language. His prose style recalls most frequently Proust (who gets an honorable mention towards the end), occasionally Woolf, and sometimes even Nicholson Baker--for example, during a particularly dense passage describing the miscellaneous and extensive contents of his childhood nursery or six excruciating pages detailing, from toe to head, how James grooms his (I kid you not) body hair. The narrative is confident and beautiful notwithstanding its hundred-word sentences and florid overstatement.

Yet, in spite of his masterful and encyclopedic use of language and (moreover) in spite of all that his hero tolerates as an adolescent, Golding's novel is remarkably dispassionate. The hustler hired by Zamora, after enduring his semi-vitriolic abuse, says that James "thinks too much." True enough, but--more accurately--James doesn't seem to feel much of anything. His emotional detachment works for and against the book: Zamora comes across as a cold-hearted, emotionally stilted adult, but his childhood traumas are minimized by his aloofness.

An article in the British press by Peter Conrad dismissed "The Abomination" as little more than self-love, a literary act of onanism. But I think this criticism is unfair: Golding isn't in love with his self as much as he is in love (rightly) with the sound of his own voice. How a reader will respond to this book depends entirely on whether you think the author's eloquence is enough to make up for the novel's shortcomings. Judging purely on style and linguistic ability, I think Golding's debut is an extraordinary (upper-cased) Achievement. I hope, though, that he next uses his considerable talent to write a proper Novel.

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