Night Film

Okay, I was a huge fan of Ms. Pessl's first book, and was so excited about the prospect of a new book that I placed my order on January 1, 2011, when I first heard about it. In the time between then and now, I received a large number of emails from amazon.com, telling me that the date was pushed back and pushed back and pushed back (and, occasionally, pushed forward). But, I calmly waited, sure that it would be worth the wait.

And, now, Night Film has come out, and it's only sort of worth the wait. There was much about this book to like, and I know from reading other reviews that others have written about a lot of it.

But, I wanted to talk a bit about what disappointed me. I did love the way the book began, with the pastiche of web sites and the Times article as an introduction about the world that we were about to enter. I was glad, by the way, that I bought a hard copy, since I can only imagine the difficulty in navigating an e-book.

And, from those first pages, I thought we were being set up to dig into the works of Cordova, and that some of what was alluded to in the early dialogue and description would infuse the plot. As I read, and had to abide by most of the characters' needing to “talk to someone” or “get something off their chest”, I let it pass, despite the fact that it did not ring true. I mean, if one of these people were real, a real person, they'd more than likely say nothing or be cryptic or run away or whatever. But, I understand that sometimes such moving parts are necessary to move the plot forward. It's just that I expected more from Ms. Pessl, given how wonderful the first book was.

As the book continued, and the unlikely group came together to investigate (trying not to give too much away, here), I felt as though this was far too random to be true. Sure, there are perhaps other reasons it would happen, and so I assumed that would later be revealed. Still, it was a disappointment that there wasn't more to this.

And, most importantly, for the bulk of the book, aside from some glancing comments about Cordova and his philosophy and life (and, of course, the big ‘set piece' toward the end), there really wasn't much about those “films” that were mentioned initially. I felt this to be a great let down. I felt as though the entire book, a twist on a murder/mystery, could have been set anywhere with any “patriarch” and family, and that the tease about the films wasn't exploited nearly enough.

All in all, while I found the book to be somewhat entertaining, it was a let-down. Which is not to say that I didn't like it; I think that my expectations, both as a result of her first book and the first part of this one, were perhaps too high.