Definitely one of the most disturbing books I have ever read, which for me is a good thing. This is the top of my list for all time book of short-stories. If you get offended easily avoid this book. If you want something different and shocking pick up this book. ( )

I always feel odd giving bad reviews on fiction, even when I emphatically think a book is not good. It is one thing for me to pull apart non-fiction books on conspiracy theory and new-age nonsense that asserts the soul of Einstein is on the planet Marduk. It is another to find fault in fiction because all fiction comes from a place of inner experience and not to like fiction is, in a sense, finding fault with the author him or herself, even if that is probably not the best way to look at things.

There were three overarching problems I had with The Book of a Thousand Sins, and they are:

1) The stories all had a common theme, not unexpected to be sure, but themes that became a bit repetitive and seemed unoriginal once you had a couple of stories under your belt. The themes are that there is no God and life is suffering and pain, or that there is a God and/or Hell, both are out to get you and life is suffering and pain. In one story, White’s riff on these themes was amazing, and I will get to that in a moment, but overall, the approach at times seemed heavy-handed and repetitive.

2) There is a passivity in reading White that is alienating. Too much of the plot in some of the stories comes from dialogue, or in some cases, monologue. I am not one to tell anyone to show and not tell, because it is a cheap criticism, all too often used when people just don’t like a book and need something to base that dislike on. This was not the case with White’s stories, when much of the plot came from dialogue. This was especially difficult because when White writes in a realm of action, his prose is quite good.

3) When you combine White’s tendency to tell the story via dialogue with White’s themes, you can also end up feeling preached at, an uncomfortable feeling when reading. I often found myself mentally blipping over large chunks of the dialogue when this preachy sense crept up on me. There is a didactic nature to some of the speeches that makes White’s exciting concepts boring.

Read the whole review here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/?p=461 ( )