Book 536

Bellman & Black, by Diane Setterfield, Atria Book, 2013.

This is a beautifully written book.  And that may be the problem.  The lovely, poetic prose just doesn't quite match up with a stark tale of madness and death.  Maybe if the writing had been rawer, more emotional, less contained, we could have seen more of Bellman and understood better his descent.  But instead, this book just seemed to drift like an iridescent feather from a rook until it is caught up in a sudden wind and disappears entirely.