The Alchemist's Secret - June 2022 Book Group discussion thread

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GregP Jun 2022 8:27am, 15 Jun 2022 136,246 posts	0 GregP The old man’s eyes flashed wildly behind long, straggly grey hair that hung down to merge with his bush of a beard. He handled rapidly towards them with a stick, boots dragging on the concrete floor.
McGoohan Jun 2022 8:34am, 15 Jun 2022 51,486 posts	0 McGoohan That is quite bad. I have been reading the worst bits out to Liebling. You've got some awful almost-prose coming up.
McGoohan Jun 2022 8:37am, 15 Jun 2022 51,487 posts	0 McGoohan Chapter 32, in its entirety.
Diogenes Jun 2022 8:37am, 15 Jun 2022 70,619 posts	0 Diogenes You mean that's the actual text and not another pastiche?
McGoohan Jun 2022 8:42am, 15 Jun 2022 51,488 posts	0 McGoohan Genuine. There's some bits of Chapter 32 that read as if written by an excitable 12-year old. It's full of redundant words. Mariani tries to describe a car going quickly but wants to do it in an 'exciting' way so he says things like 'the speedo needle' was pushing 100. 'Speedo needle'? You'd maybe say 'needle' or 'speedo' but not both together. The whole book is full of that. No verb is unadverbed, no noun goes unadejectived.
GregP Jun 2022 9:11am, 15 Jun 2022 136,247 posts	0 GregP ’C’est moi,’ said Ben. ’Vous avez l’argent?’ ‘The money’s in here,’ the bald man replied in French.
GregP Jun 2022 9:12am, 15 Jun 2022 136,248 posts	0 GregP [this is chapter 26 - so I should hit Chapter 32 later this morning]
Diogenes Jun 2022 9:30am, 15 Jun 2022 70,620 posts	0 Diogenes Just how does stuff like this get published?
McGoohan Jun 2022 9:41am, 15 Jun 2022 51,489 posts	0 McGoohan Greppers - that's one of the bits I read out to Liebling. Ben Hunt might be fluent in umpteen foreign languages but Scott Mariani clearly isn't.
Diogenes Jun 2022 9:46am, 15 Jun 2022 70,622 posts	0 Diogenes My God, it's published by an actual proper publishing company, HarperCollins. I presume there was some kind of cost-cutting exercise where they skipped the editing part.