Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

Among the books I've recently finished is Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl. His sophomore effort is again a period novel like his debut - The Dante Club, which i enjoyed a great deal and won't hestitate to recommend to anyone interested in mystery wrapped in a period setting and featured real-life literate luminaries such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Wendell Holems. Poe Shadow, in much the same vien, features the famous gothic writer/poet Edgar A. Poe (whose "The Purloined Letter" has been the subject of one of Jacque Lacan's critical analyses. Lacan peeled away the layers of the story to reveal something a causal reader will never see. Extremely inspiring. I would suggest anyone interested to check out "Reading Theory- An Introudction to Lacan, Derrida and Kristeva" by Michael Payne). In Poe Shadow, Matthew Pearl sets out to unravel the mystery surrounding Poe's untimely death (historically, he did die in the most suspicious circumstances). But the characters in it are so not loveable. Mr Pearl protrays a young lawyer, who has obviously caught the Sherlock-bug, desperate to unearth the truth about Poe's death that he's willing to risk it all and eventually finds himself being accused of murder as well as on the brink of losing his estate and a marriage to boot. But I've a hard time understanding his obsession and all the follies he committed in the midst of stopping my mind from wandering from a plot that drags on and on and on. The writing is no comparison to The Dante Club as well. Pearl switches registers so frequently (it doesn't help there're quite a few French characters who tend to be overly ornate and ponderous in their speeches) to the effect that the book doesn't feel whole. The story ends unceremoniously that makes you wonder if it's worth all the trouble to get there. It's a grave disappointment.