Selecting a post title and image for a book review is a romp through what you have read. There is no one to punish you if there is a bit of damage or graffiti left behind. You didn’t write the book, but the romp is all yours.
Tom McCarthy, a writer and talking head, is the author of C. The problem is there is another Tom McCarthy who is an actor, screen writer, and director. They look like brothers, except the author of C has a green sweater his grandmother gave him, and the actor has a hairy chest. If the chest is not showing or the green sweater is absent, well it is hard to say which Tom you have.
I found an image that encapsulates the life of Serge Carrefax, the wayward subject of C. When I discovered the witches of Macbeth were originally described by Shakespeare as wayward rather than weird, I knew I had both title and image.
What you see above is Macbeth and witches in the West German ballet Macbeth by Johann Kresnik and Gottfried Helnwein at the Edinburgh International Festival, 1989. Those who like gutsy ballet, snake-bit lives, and wayward men will enjoy C.
For Serge Carrefax the difference between charmed and cursed is not evident as he is battered by unnatural forces with no buffer from the on-again off-again luck of the ordinary person. If ordinary luck found him he would recognize the inherent boredom and soon have it corrupted.
The lesson to be learned from C is never to travel or in anyway partner with a Serge Carrefax. Of course you would need luck to recognize one soon enough to escape unscathed. It is, however, safe to read about a Serge Carrefax. Charles Marlin
