The Soul Thief

The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter is a short, intellectual postmodern novel in the spirit of Donna Tartt’s Secret History. The novel came highly recommended to me, and as with most things that are highly praised, it did not live up to expectations. Part of that is my fault as I was unaware that the novel was a work of postmodern fiction and I always need to prepare for that ahead of time otherwise I fall victim to the disjointed narrative.

It is the story of a group of college students, but focuses on Nathaniel Mason (not his real name) and his nemesis Jerome Coolberg. The first part of the novel devotes itself to the life of these two men and the women that get caught in lives. There are a few brilliant scenes, the most memorable of which revolves around and attempted burglary that take s a very unusual turn. The narrative builds towards a seemingly disastrous climax, but then jumps several years without any real closure.

The second and third part of the novel deal with the protagonist and his rival as adults, that have not been in contact with each other for many years. Unfortunately, for me, the novel seems to fall apart here. The narrative becomes extremely disjointed and it is very distracting to the reader. The novel progresses in a way that is hard to follow unless you are paying very close attention. For me this was a nice change of pace from the other books I have recently read.

The Soul Thief is a very intellectual novel that makes full use of the author’s very impressive vocabulary, which can be distracting to the reader. I had to stop several times and pause as I tried to remember what certain words meant. I even considered reaching for a dictionary at one point. I would certainly recommend this novel to anyone that is a fan of postmodern fiction, especially those that prefer their stories a little dark and creepy. This is the story of an uber-stalker going to the extreme.