Resumo de Congo - Michael Crichton

Congo by Michael Crichton inspired what many believe to be one of the worst films of all time. I can't comment on that as I haven't seen it. But how does the book fare?

I've liked movies based on Crichton novels (particularly The Andromaeda Strain and the first Jurassic Park movie), and I love ER (not that I've seen it in ages). But within the first few pages I'd taken a dislike to his literary style. The sentences seemed clipped. Incomplete. Didn't run well. (Yes that was all intentional ? just to give you an idea what I mean.) However, I ploughed on to the end ? partly so I could see if the situation improved, and partly because he's such a successful author that I wanted to find out exactly why he's been so popular over the years. (This was the first book by Crichton that I ever read).

The plot itself had great potential to be interesting. It weaves together three main strands ? the story of an intelligent gorilla who communicates with his keeper via sign language, an expedition into the Congo by a small group financed by a large corporation whose interest in the area seems uncertain, and a new menace that they encounter while in the jungle. Oh, and throw in legends of a lost city of gold for good measure. I quite liked the way the different plot strands were developed and the overall plot development.

Crichton has obviously done his research here, both in terms of geography and zoology, and the descriptions of the deep Congolese jungle and the way the keeper interacts with the gorilla is written in loving detail. If his writing style hadn't alienated me so much I would have really enjoyed this book. Sadly, I just couldn't get on with it. (I later read "Terminal Man" by Crichton ? mainly because it was paired with Congo in one book ? and had the same problem reading it.) Without feeling involved in the story because there was absolutely no flow to it meant that I never really cared what happened, either to the characters or the plot. Neither did I feel that the characters were adequately developed, they all seemed a bit flat. The set pieces are written well and don't suffer quits from the writing style.

Despite the fact tat overall I didn't enjoy reading Congo at all, however, there were positive points. Besides the plot development that I've already mentioned, Crichton employs three distinct narrative styles throughout the novel ? the usual third-person narrative, the gorilla's first-person visualisation of what's happening, and telex communications between the company backing the project and the explorers themselves. Unfortunately the effectiveness of this is diminished by the normal narrative style being almost as terse as other two.

Overall

All in all it's not exactly a terrible book, but the style really put me off. I'm giving it 2 stars as I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but 1 star just seems a bit too harsh. If you have read his books before or read authors who employ a similarly terse style and liked them, there's no reason you wouldn't enjoy this one. It's all a matter of taste, I guess!

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