The Stars' Tennis Balls

The Stars' Tennis Balls - Stephen Fry

It took me quite a while to get into the story, but having gotten past the first part which reads like an excerpt from Moab, I could not put it down.

 

I had - on purpose - not read any reviews for this book, and am now glad about that as most reviews only make the comparison to The Count of Monte Christo.

 

What about the resonances of other works, though? I couldn't help but also be reminded of Zweig's Chess Story, Duerrenmatt's Physicists, The Bourne Identity, and Pulp Fiction. All in all I was reminded of a venerable hodge podge of dilemmas. The kind of pastiche episodes that make fab reading in any graphic novel, except of course that The Stars' Tennis Balls isn't a graphic novel. Isn't it?

 

It will probably take a few days before I can make up my mind about this one.

 

In any case, 5 stars for gripping my imagination, for making me reconsider literary genres, for keeping me up half the night pondering about the characters, for - no doubt - sticking in my head for a long time to come.