Official Review: Bacchanalist by Helena Peach

[ReviewerDiksha]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Bacchanalist" by Helena Peach.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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Bacchanalist by Helena Peach (Peacach, as spelt in the book) is a non-fiction novel that recounts the story of the author's life. Originally hailing from Trinidad, Helena had moved to Canada when she was still a child. In this book, she talks about her experiences in a new country, a new home, and how her life changed due to this move. She also talks about her friends and family members, focusing on the impact that they've had on her journey.

My rating for Bacchanalist is 1 out of 4 stars. The first thing that stood out to me about this book was the severe lack of editing. It suffers from a flood of grammatical errors, most of which are simple typos and general punctuation mistakes. Accompanied by occasional ill-structured sentences, they turn one's reading experience into a chore.

Another huge problem with this book is that it does not have a proper structure. The story begins at a random point and ends pretty randomly too. All through the book, the author shares anecdotes from their life and adopts the pattern of diary entries. One could randomly pick any page, and it wouldn’t matter that they haven’t read the previous pages. This lack of structure prevents the story from building a solid ground for itself. There is no build-up to anything; there is no push for the reader to keep going. You could stop reading after five pages or fifty pages, and it would all be the same. The book is not driven to any resolution, there is no bottom line. And so, one is pushed to ask: what’s the point?

The next thing that vexed me about this book was the sheer number of people coming in and going out of it. The author shares stories about her siblings, her parents, her life-long friends, and her fleeting flings. While it is good to offer a wide array of stories and experiences to the reader, there is little use to introduce a character or tell a story when they don’t have a lasting impact, either on the protagonist or on the reader. What happens, in this case, is that the reader doesn’t get to bond with any character. When they can’t bond with anyone, they can’t care for anyone. When they don’t care for the characters, they don’t care for the story.

Despite so many flaws, I think the book can be redeemed with a vigorous round of editing. Some stories, no matter how disconnected they might seem, are heart-warming. The ones that focus on the author and her siblings are particularly relatable. In an ideal situation, I would have suggested this book to novice readers, or to people who are beginners in the English language. Its writing style is rather simple, and the story does not demand too much from the reader. This makes it an excellent choice for someone who wants to practice their reading skills. In its current state, however, I wouldn’t advise anyone to go for this book.

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Bacchanalist
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[Becca Olsson]

I was very interested in this based on e title alone. I’m a little disappointed, but It sounds like some good editing and maybe a general theme to flow through and connect all the stories is needed and, like you said, it can be redeemed. Thanks for the honest review!