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Tuesday 31 December 2013

Book review: The Conspiracy Kid by E.P. Rose

About the book:


A cast of charmingly eccentric characters is brought together through their accidental membership of The Conspiracy Kid Fan Club, resulting in a glorious series of adventures involving hamburgers, poetry, blues, mental breakdowns, art, death and golf, as it propels the reader from Hendon to Biloxi, and from Piccadilly to Pring.

The friendship between Edwin Mars, a shambolic and underfunded poet, and Joe Claude, a plodding and bereaved billionaire, lies at the heart of the book – a friendship kindled by Edwin’s sonnet, “The Conspiracy Kid Fan Club”.

But what is the Fan Club? Who is the Conspiracy Kid? And what effect does reading the sonnet have on all those who come into contact with it?

This is the story of the earliest unwitting Conspiracy Kid Fan Club members: Edwin Mars (poet), Joe Claude (billionaire), Walter Cornelius (‘werewolf’), Muriel Cohen (chef) – to name but a few. It tells of their loves and losses, their tragedies and triumphs, all tied together in a tangle of conspiracy, coincidence and string.

E. P. Rose’s stylish and humorous prose, combined with an intricately woven plot, draws the reader into a heady vortex of colliding worlds, resulting in unexpected and often hilarious consequences.
 
Or, as Edwin Mars, being a poet, puts it:

This is the story of Joe Claude and me,
And of my son and the sisters he loved,
And of their father, how he came to be
In a graveyard - naked and uni-gloved;
Hamburgers, hurricanes, murder and string,
Werewolves and waiters and barmen
and cooks,
From Maine to Biloxi, Mayfair to Pring,
Furniture, ketamine, golfing and books;
Marriages made and broken and mended
Under the shadow of loved ones who died.
See how the grieving billionaire ended
Up in that prison where laughter’s proscribed.
Will he be rescued then? Read and find out
What The Conspiracy Kid’s all about.


E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpuf

E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpuf
E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction. - See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpuf


About the Author:




E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.
Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.
As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted"

My Review


You don't have to be kiddish, but it helps.
When I ventured initially into the book, I had little idea of what to expect from it, since classifying it under a particular genre seems a daunting task, just like reading through the events that ensue.
It is almost ludicrous that something apparently as innocuous as a sonnet can be the crux of this all, and thankfully it isn't, the name is just figurative.
You are enrolled into the conspiracy kid fan club as soon as you read the sonnet. It is irreversible and metaphorical. There’s little relevance of the fan club apart from it being a bunch of people around whom the story revolves. so to say, the characters are both the positive and the negative aspect of the novel. Positive, in their presentation and stories, and negative in their multitude and execution. The dialogues seem interesting but then the whole plot is bogged down by unnecessary attention to interest factual details which have little consequence for the plot. As a result reading through the entire novel becomes a daunting task.
the ending however has been done quite subtly, however that does not make up for the  lack of coherence in the plot especially in the latter half if second part till the first half of third part. The plot has potential, but the timing and manner of certain revelations is what pulls the ratings down.the best part has to be the sonnets composed by Edwin. They are truly something to look forward to, reread and savor.  The first part is the best which eases the reader’s transition into the world of the conspiracy kid fan club. And the humor is all-pervasive throughout the novel.

The most endearing characters are Iris, Muriel, Joe Claude.

Judgement:

Reading becomes delightful if you can avoid the unnecessary information and concentrate on two things: one the restaurant and the people behind it second Joe Claude and his family. How Cynthia reviews the restaurant is really thrilling, though.

Best lines: 

I don’t think it’s really an area of competition, do you? Grief ? Grief is grief. I don’t think there’s any point in measuring it, yours against mine, mine against anybody’s.

E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted.”

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpuf

E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted.”

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpuf

E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted.”

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpu

E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted.”

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpuf

E.P.ROSE is the nom de plume of a previous restaurateur,who has retreated from restaurants in order to concentrate on writing remarkable fiction.

Table Thirteen Books is committed to assisting him in this endeavour.

As he himself says: “I need all the help I can get. I seem to be so easily distracted.”

- See more at: http://www.tablethirteenbooks.com/authors/e-p-rose/#sthash.zvYAn2XX.dpu

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for your review, Kritika. I have not read the book, but I felt that your review was very balanced, and I would probably consider leafing through the book if it was to come my way. I only just stumbled on your blog - all very interesting. Diane (http://the-spaceinbetween.blogspot.com.au/)

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Kritika's bookshelf: read

Angels & Demons
The Story of My Life
The Hunger Games
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Ruined
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
A Christmas Carol
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Kidnapped
The Time Machine
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Da Vinci Code


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