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Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

I am a fan of stories. Stories tell us about human condition and helps us empathize with the villains and cheer for heros. If you do not think that a story has to have a hero, sure, I understand. There is a protagonist and their circumstances. We would put ourselves in their shoes and get to feel their condition. This book is not one of them. 

This story is about Silvie, daughter of a middle aged bus driver, Evil, who is also an amateur archaeologist. Evil's wife is Mrs. Indifference. A Prof. Stupid with three students, two guys Blah and evil-Blah, and one girl, Superwoman along with Evil family go on an "experimental archaeology" expedition. Silvie is charming in her own way and sometimes can intimidate Blah and evil-Blah. But she is also "impressed" by Superwoman. Evil and Stupid do a pre-iron age ritual and coerce Silvie (who is a minor, btw) into doing something that is clearly objectionable. Superwoman saves the day.

This is not a story. There is no plot in this book. This book is a pseudo-metaphorical fantasy about a caricature interpretation of recent political actions. It is one thing to directly accuse a group of racism and misogyny by describing a "factual" fiction. This sort of fiction where the author creates a dump-all-you-want-evil straw man villain and a naive protagonist just to make a point is just plain lazy. I do not regret reading the book because it provides me an insight into what can be "sold" easily as "insightful" in the current political atmosphere. More than actual story, people seem to like this book because they can attribute all the evil they want to the characters and feel the imaginary pain. Second hand emotions. Yuck!

I found the basic premise of the book outrageously artificial. Experimental archaeology that involves play acting? Really? What next? Someone who thinks renaissance fair is real? For some reason, I cannot take this whole "wall" thing seriously. I have a hard time imagining the size of the "wall" that two middle age men would build in a couple of evenings. If it were 100 people building a wall over the period of a couple of months, I might have considered it as a serious thing. The character of the Prof was nauseating. Only Superwoman understands that Sulevia is a minor and the rest are all bumbling idiots? Geez. Write something believable next time please! The writing with so many commas and punctuation was so difficult to read. Overall, real disappointing.

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