Book Review - The Dig by John Preston

[byslantedlight]

I really am being shockingly un-read-y at the moment (well, for me I am!) and my penance is that I have to confess it here in the name of completism... *g*

So - The Dig! I bought this weekend before last, thinking it'd help me settle my archaeology head on... *g* It's set in the 1930s, just before war breaks out, and it's the story of the discovery of Sutton Hoo by Mrs Pretty and Basil Brown. It's had wonderful reviews in many places.

I found it a bit unsatisfying, to be honest, although I can appreciate what the various reviewers have seen in it. My first impression was purely technical - that there wasn't enough variation in sentence length to make it flow for me, although I'm sure that was done purposefully. It has the effect of making the whole thing read very choppily to me, though. It settled down a little, but...

It's also from the point of view of four different characters (actual historical figures too, which is interesting, technically and legally!) and it's quite short, so that we were only really getting vignettes of the story, at different times and perspectives. That meant you could see all sorts of ways that people and events could be read, but again that only worked for me up to a certain point. Just as I was getting settled in to a point of view that part of the story would end, and I wouldn't find out any more about that character via the others - there was no settling of mysteries and stories and so on, it was just... ongoing narrative. Like life, and all that. *g* And just as unsatisfying...

So... Would I recommend it? With caveats... It's certainly atmospheric, but I can see how the atmosphere is raised, rather than being swallowed up by it, which is my favourite thing about reading, so... I'm not surprised it's called "a literary treasure" on the cover - prize-winning books, and books described as good like that are often the ones I get on less well with!