Anything with 'book lover' in the title is bound to attract, is it not? And The Book Lover's Tale has such echoes of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that it comes as little surprise that a late 15th-century printed edition of the Tales plays a crucial role at the climax of the novel. But take note: Chaucer is nothing if not ironic. The Clerk, who appears so idealistic, the antithesis of greed and worldliness, a man who would rather "have at his beddes heed | Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed," is -- like all the Pilgrims -- not quite what he seems. His tale, following on soon after The Wife of Bath's Tale with its theme of women's sovereignty over men, appears to favour the model wife: The Clerk's Tale tells the misogynistic story of Patient Griselda, uncomplaining despite everything thrown at her by a husband determined to test her obedience. However, the Clerk then adds some surprising comments: women should really stand up for themselves and follow the example of the Greek nymph Echo who, of course, always answered back. His further advice is that wives should aim to make their husbands worry, weep, wring their hands and wail.

All this background, I think, is important in trying to understand what is at first sight a pretty grubby tale told in the first person by a real Lothario, a book collector by the name of Matt Le Voy. He is a dilettante dependent on the wealth of his wife Cecilia, earning his way by advising clients on what books to adorn the shelves of properties which have had their interiors designed by Cecilia. He becomes infatuated by Claudia, married to nouveau-riche client Jim Swanson, a banker whom Matt quickly despises as completely undeserving of good fortune and a happy marriage. Matt sets out to seduce Claudia with one-to-one book tutorials while plotting to make nasty things happen to Jim.

I found this a thoroughly unpleasant read. It is difficult to sympathise with a narrator who is not only an amoral womaniser but also a self-absorbed psychopath. In The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith managed to create a protagonist whom the reader, despite him- or herself, really wanted to escape retribution -- even though this character too was a self-absorbed psychopath -- simply by making him supremely efficient at evading suspicion and, using the third person, distancing him from any implied approbation. Matt however is rarely master of the situation, and in this first-person tale his confessional tone somehow makes the reader more complicit and so somehow sullied.

Matt appears to have it all on a plate: a good education, a beautiful and successful wife, a valuable collection of rare books and a career allowing him a totally reprehensible access to pliant female clients. But he is lacking in any form of empathy, evincing little or no reactions to the various deaths that he comes across, but -- like the capable sociopath that he is -- able to make the right noises if necessary. Make no mistake: the author is a capable writer, catching Matt's obsessions perfectly and providing a good working plot with a couple of unforeseen twists. But there were too many longeurs; the story didn't really pick up till halfway through, and even then there were many lurches in the pacing. The frame, I felt, was clumsy in trying to prefigure Matt's state of mind at the end of the novel; and I didn't care whether he got his just deserts or not, just wishing the story would end sooner than it did. In fact, I couldn't empathise with any of the characters, even the ones who were more sinned against than sinning.

Still, the Chaucerian dimension to The Book Lover's Tale at least gives the character of Matt a little more depth: an individual who is so wedded to book-collecting that, like the Clerk, he would spend good money on books and keep them close at hand; a person who though he says one thing means another; a man who believes women are playthings with whose feelings and emotions he can trifle with impunity; and a character who even tries, rather dramatically, to use a 500-year-old copy of The Canterbury Tales to get him out of an awkward situation. I can't say this endeared me to him at all but, at least, one woman manages to get her own back, though in truth it's little consolation.

http://wp.me/s2oNj1-tale ( )

A book that made me smile more than once, full of literary references and with a compelling plotline, even though ( or maybe because) the protagonist is not a pleasant man. ( )

I loved this book and found it to be a very dark piece of metafiction. The plot is absolutely fascinating and moves along at a good pace. It's extremely well written and will appeal to all lovers of books about books. ( )