1.16.2012
The Flame Alphabet is a novel at every sentence. It’s also a mystery, a compulsive page-turner and is told in a relatively straightforward, linear way — very few postmodern sleights of hand. The language conflict in this book lies not in the telling, but in the story itself, a nightmarish tale of parents who are made ill from the speech of their teenage daughter. It’s a simple premise, but when the language toxicity strikes, the book’s world quickly turns dystopic, with sinister Jewish sects and Cronenbergian biotechnologies hiding in every corner.
