Matt McAvoy Book Review

Bizarrely offbeat, this book is part fantasy, part satire and generally overall, I think, mostly literary fiction.  Those familiar with the original Baron Munchausen tales – and I refer now to the book, not the tall stories told about the real man himself – will recognize this as much of the same, with the same strangely vivid, visual setpieces and abstract palette, though I have to say I’m not entirely sure why the author chose to pigeonhole himself with a direct sequel to a literary classic; I can’t see, with such a bold and bright imagination, why he didn’t instead simply create his own fantastic world and story.  I suppose it’s easier to build a new narrative around an established character and premise, but with that comes expectation and perhaps creative constriction.  Furthermore, Ross Stein is a superbly talented author – highly eloquent, articulate and undoubtedly well-educated in the English language.  At first glance he would appear a worthy writer to pick up the pen and continue the adventures, but it is hard to distance oneself from the literary classic this appears to be unambiguously courting for the position of sequel – or rather, in the case of most people, the somewhat unenjoyable movie by Terry Gilliam.

The star of this book is Stein’s prose.  He is wonderful to read, his words poetic, melodic and exquisitely high-brow.  That said, the narrative itself is pretty tame.  It’s offbeat, sure, and uses the same cartoonish, surreal imagery we have come to expect from the franchise, but the stories are not so much reflective of the Baron’s own whimsical flair as perhaps rather more his observations on our own contemporary world.  Without clearly defining which side of centre he falls on, the author does seem to use this platform to tackle a few modern-day evils – hot political topics, so to speak – but whether he does this to say his piece or simply because it is a contemporary slant on a classic tale is not clear; in this day and age, to be honest, the tendency is to believe the former, though I apologize if I have done the author an injustice there.

It is fair to summarize this book as exceptionally well written by a wonderfully gifted author, though also that it is not necessarily my cup of tea in terms of genre and story.  Its fantasy is very outlandish and abstract, its humour perhaps observational meeting outright zany, and its stories intellectual vignettes and snippets, rather than adventures of swashbuckling excitement and hysterical high jinks.  If you want to read a book which is well crafted and will stimulate your mind, this might be right up your street.  If you like the offbeat stories of Baron Munchausen, then this is indeed a worthy successor, so I suggest giving it a go.