Publication Date: March 12, 2013
In The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time by Eli Yaakunah, Ishtar is promoted to scriptwriter and suffers a crisis of conscience. Does she follow her heart or the crowd?
The author, Eli Yaakunah, gave me a copy of this novel in exchange for my review.
The Amazon description for The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time contains a warning. The warning asks that readers download a sample of the novel before buying. The idea is that if a reader likes the sample, they will like the novel. This is truly a love it or don’t get it proposition. I fall into the latter category.
Yaakunah’s writing style is surreal. The material can only be described as esoteric. There is a market, and I have a feeling that market is relatively small and likely by design. I don’t know Yaakunah but if, as the claim goes, The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time is the author, the assumption is that mainstream is probably a bad word. That is not a criticism but simply an indicator of style. It reads to this reader like abstract art. At the start of the novel, Ishtar is morphing in a steam of consciousness sort of reality that is beyond this reader’s comprehension.
It must be said that the narrative, while beyond my comprehension, is colorful and alive. It is the sort of novel that could one day be studied in writing courses in university as an example of the use of language in the narrative. The language is rich, abundant and overflows while readable. Ishtar will speak clearly to the readers who bond with her. They will rave to friends of its brilliance. I will say unequivocally that had I not committed to reviewing the novel, I would have stopped reading, but I don’t regret reading it. This reader has a feeling it will be a long while before another novel like this crosses her path. The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time is just that unique. The author says in the description that the novel is any genre you want it to be and it truly seems to be the case. So much is open to interpretation.
If you are a fan of art as prose, The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time is the novel for you.
If The Woman Who Sparked the Greatest Sex Scandal of All Time by Eli Yaakunah like a book for you, read an excerpt and buy on
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