![]() ![]() (It takes place in North Africa, but it's a French colony, and virtually everyone in the novel is French.) Some of his characters sound like they would feel at home in a Dashiell Hammett story. James Jenner is an OK narrator, though his very American voice (certainly at least North American) doesn't mix well with the European ambience of the story. There's a philosophical point to be made here, but I didn't find the story compelling enough to connect the dots. ![]() ![]() Nobody knows why the plague erupted nobody knows why it went away. And eventually the plague dies down, goes back into hibernation, and the city is reopened. The death toll rises every man - and they are all men - sucks it up and keeps working stoically. The city is blocked off from the outside world in an effort to contain the epidemic. Everybody works together to get through the terrible calamity of bubonic plague - evolving later into the far more deadly and contagious pneumonic plague. There are a number of key characters in the story, and their viewpoints are effectively represented, but there's no real conflict. After several striking scenes in the beginning, the book settles down into a glacial pace. But somehow I wasn't able to connect with it. I know many people who admire this novel, and one member of my family was profoundly moved by it. ![]()
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