Hidden Faces

I haven't read much by Dali before and mainly admired his art so this was really interesting to read and explore his literary work.

I usually read very quickly but there's no way anyone can fully appreciate Salvador Dali's (yes THAT Salvador Dali) novel about a group of high society French people both pre and during WW2 without taking their time over it.
The core of the story is the bizarre relationship between the Count of Grandsailles and Solange de Cleda over the years, ever complicated by misunderstandings ,fate and the often bizarre or outrageous behaviour of both. Grandsailles is quite a revolting character who despite that seems to attract loyalty and devotion from those in his orbit. Typically of his kind with rival political factions doing battle in the streets,the German army invading and heroic resistance around him he spares a thought for little else than his comforts and wants, wreaking havoc in the lives of others.

This is definitely not a book for everyone,there's a great plot but ,particularity in the early chapters Dali seems intent on grandstanding and showing off his vast vocabulary and literary skills, both of which it has to said are quite spectacular. He never uses a simple sentence when several paragraphs of flowery and/or incisive prose suggesting that he might indeed at some point have "swallowed a dictionary" as the old saying used to be. As a fan of great writing as well as a good plotline I loved it,others might feel battered by verbosity and not be so impressed. It seems at first as if there are a lot of big words but not much happening but eventually Dali gets into his stride and things are a lot easier to follow.
This ,as long as you can handle the writing style,is a massively entertaining story with flashes of intellectualism throughout. It reminded me very much of my favourite French Author both in style and subject and I'd be very surprised if Pierre La Maitre wasn't influenced by this book when he wrote his "Paris Between the Wars" trilogy.
This won't be for everyone,"wordy" doesn't even touch the sides, but if you're a fan of masterly language usage it's bordering on a masterpiece.

I think this isn't for everyone. This kept reminding me of Waugh, if he was dark and overly wordy, except the relationships were more complicated. It's interesting to read fiction that tells so sweepingly of a historical period
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Last year I read the newly-rediscovered lost novel of Derek Jarman, a Carrollesque dive into the world of extravagant excess that is America. There is something particular about prose from a visual artist, with a voice that distills reality into something far beyond. This offering from Dali sings with the same bursts of creativity, and will intrigue anyone interested even slightly in the outré.