The Flame Alphabet

For a book detailing the slow and macabre proliferation of disease and dissolution of language, this reads like a methodical and ominously gorgeous work of prose. It wasn't without its flaws, but still earned its 5 stars (maybe 4.5) through its descriptions, analyses of familial relationships and religion, and execution of a great concept without going Hollywood Thriller. I keep turning parts of it over in my head and continue to draw out more about culture, spirituality, and of course language itself.

I don't mean that this story was confusing, just for the sake of confusion. It's rather the novel kept me in a constant state of confusion about how I felt about the narrator, the mother, the daughter, and the situation itself. I spent most of the book wondering how the narrator was going to survive and make it through the spread of the language virus, while also hoping that perhaps he'd die and I'd finally be able to hear the daughter or the mother's side of things. Given the theme of the book, I think this response is the exact one that Marcus intended for us.

I've read other reviews that didn't like the beauty of the language. I did. And, I enjoyed the dark, sick humor that would occur at the most unexpected of places.

Overall, I'm glad that I read this book and it makes me want to know more of Marcus and his work.

This book is about a Jewish family and how they deal with their intelligent, logic based, sullen teenage daughter. The disease is almost secondary. I wish I had known that before purchasing.

I couldn't get through this one. I didn't make it past 2 hours. Maybe I will give it another shot on paper so I can get through it faster. I felt it was a waste to listen. Nothing really happened in the first 2 hours. Maybe other listeners got far in enough to get to the story, I didn't have the patience.

I like the idea behind this apocalyptic story, but I think the novel is a bit misconstructed, taking too long after backing up to get back to where it starts, and then there is a very strange element that just doesn't work involving a network of tunnels and secret Jewish/Hebrew underground. Trim that out, and concentrate on the ideas beginning to develop in the 2nd half of the story and it could have been great. I kept thinking of Saramago's Blindness, which is excellent though a bit long in the middle, and this could have been very much like that, exploring the consequences of the situation more, but as is, i have to say near miss.

Not worth a credit knowing what I know now. I have almost 50 books in my library and this is in the worst 5. This book attracted me with the synopsis because it was an interesting idea (might be enjoyable to someone who studies languages and communication), but the entire story is problematic and missing some essential ingredients to make an enjoyable read. 1) The main theme is pain from verbal communication. Do you realize what that does? It eliminates the primary foundation for meaningful relationships. Do you what a story without meaningful relationships is? That's right, boring! The main character goes 11 long hours without any meaningful connection with any other character in the book! That results in 2) You don't care about the characters. The lack of meaningful relationships between characters means you don't care what happens to any of them, thus there is no tense climax that you are so anticipating that you remove all distractions so you can't miss! 3) there is no solution or closure at the end of the book. 4) There is no antagonist that must be overcome. Please avoid this book.