User Profile

This is the 3rd book of the Anty Boisjoly mystery series. If you are not familiar with this series, Antony Boisjoly is an upper-crust dilettante detective. He usually uses his bright mind to fix his upper-class friend's perils, that, by the way, are not at all in the same category as the problems of the rest of the humane kind. Set in the 20s decade of the last century, in a world between wars, when skirts became shorter and the fun had just started, this book goes along with the tone of the times. As a mystery book is not the greatest, the author prefers locked room mysteries, that, for those who know, have very limited options. But I don’t read these books because of the super intricate story, or the incredible deductions of the central character. No, I read these books because they are a blast. Mister Anty Boisjoly is a witty commentator of the sarcastic persuasion, yes, the stylish, rich, and a tad snob young man, is funny and clever and has something horribly and funny to say about everything. If you like this kind of humor, don’t think it twice and grab this book. In this installment, the not quite heroic hero, has to solve the mysterious murder/duel of the two uncles of a club member and friend. In a locked room. Yes, that is how it goes, it’s not a mistake. Of course, he solves the conundrum in time for tea, well, drinks.

This is a book I had read when I was a teenager and I didn't have that much experience in this world, but it still left a deep impression on me. The book is a mix of fantasy, psychological thriller and science fiction, divided into three parts that make up a more complex story. More than human, it deals with the next form of human evolution, one in an entirely different sense than we might expect. This is a magnificent book, especially if we put it in perspective, since it was written in the early 1950s. Although it has aged wonderfully. It takes as its main characters those on the fringes of society. A drifter with no intellectual ability whatsoever, a girl unappreciated by her mother, two black twins who don't speak, a street child, will be the protagonists not only of the novel but of what humanity can become. Remember that this book was written in the 1950s, it is not surprising that not many people liked what Mr. Sturgeon was trying to tell us. Theodore Sturgeon is one of the fathers of science fiction, and one of the best writers of the genre. Who, unfortunately, has fallen into oblivion because he did not write about spaceships or robots, which most people understand as a fundamental part of the genre. At the time, he was accused of being too sentimental because he included in his stories and novels the emotional needs of every human being, an issue that caused other writers of the genre great discomfort. After all, feelings were reserved for women and these men much preferred to exalt machines. More Than Human is a novel worth reading or rereading in my case. In retrospect, now I can appreciate it much more deeply. I can also say that its message left me with a way of seeing social codes of conduct in a very different way from the conventional one. Today, I can say that I am glad to have read it when I was so young. I must say that the “N” word is used once in the book, but the moment and the action related to it, has nothing to do with the word as we understand it now.