Summary
The President is overthrown by the Commander, and suddenly his Portraitist, Chef, and Barber – whose talents are second to none – find themselves held captive in the Presidential Palace. While the Commander exposes the President’s crimes to the people and quickly takes charge of the Palace, the Portraitist’s Wife (who is pregnant), the Barber’s Brother’s Fiancée (who sees shadows of her revolutionary lover in him), and the Chef’s Daughter (who is haunted by her father’s promiscuous past) quickly become involved. The Commander’s decision to retain the services of the former President’s staff leads to a riveting conclusion.
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Critique
The strength of this brief, sparse novel is in technique as much as plot. Dovey writes from six different points of view, which gain momentum as the story unfolds. Although well-crafted and likely to haunt you for days after reading, the book suffers from a few melodramatic moments and a tendency to oversimplify the characters and, perhaps, force the plot to its clever resolution. Nevertheless, it’s rare to find a writer these days willing to risk not stating where or when the action of the novel takes place, leaving the reader to work out how, in this case, questions of loyalty and power might become questions of life and death without a moment’s notice. A solid first effort.
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