~ THE ABOMINATION ~
Paul Golding

Review by: I. Indigo

One of the most notable qualities of The Abomination is the style of writing. It's a little wordy, very descriptive, and sometimes lost me in the depths of the character's mind, but, nevertheless, I found it captivating. Reading a small portion from a random page convinced me to purchase the novel, and I'm quite pleased that I did.

The book is framed in the sense that the first and last chapter take place in the present while the rest of the story is in the past. Here the main character is James (originally Santiago), who is cruising London gay clubs searching out a one night stand - he ends up bringing people in and sending them out, finding faults and seeming to find pleasure in turning the expectations of others into something wholly embarrassing for them. Then we find out why. In part two we begin to see this man's life as he starts out: a nine year old boy who would much rather sit at his mother's old vanity than play with cars and trucks or go to children's parties. What follows is a coming of age story, "tortured" as the back cover states, which is ultimately true. He is sent to boarding school in England with practically no knowledge of the language (his mother tongue being Spanish) and subjected to the worst kind of alienation at every turn. The bonds he forms, be them with teachers or students, always seem to turn out badly or with a tinge of bitterness in their memory. We see quite clearly how this child evolves from the shy, unprepared boy into the sarcastic, somewhat unpredictable, man we meet in the first chapter.

As I said, the style of Golding's writing interested me from the beginning. The way he worded paragraphs seemed to creep into my head, and even made me think in that style. Occasionally, it was difficult to keep up, especially about a quarter of the way through, which was the slowest portion of the novel by far. Still, I managed to persevere, and I wasn't disappointed.

Oh, and one very interesting detail (which was, for me, a little difficult to get used to) — this story doesn't have one bit of dialogue in it. That is, not in the contemporary style we're familiar with. It's a first person point of view told completely in paragraph form, never breaking into quotes or individual lines for individual people. Golding does what every English teacher hates; he narrates what's being said rather than breaking it down into character quotes. And while this may drive old-school writers mad, after a while I found that I really liked that device in this story. It just seemed to fit the flow of things, fit the character. All around, it worked. It managed to keep my attention completely, which is great because I do love dialogue, and quite often paragraphs will run me into the ground if they don't have a small break.

As for the end of the novel, which I won't detail for the sake of future readers, I felt a strong emotional connection to the main character. You realize in the end that he's still hopeful, still longing for that one true love or one true friend, and the constant shattering of his hopes causes the reader to sympathize with him utterly. I closed this novel wishing I could be there for James and prove that not everyone is intent on hurting him. This novel was a wonderful character piece. Worth the purchase.

ISBN: 0375724397
Edition: Trade Paperback