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Title: Crowley Scholars Look Here!
Review: Contrary to the two other reviews here, this novel-within-a-novel simply does not work. It involves far too much navel-gazing. And, for navel-gazing to work, the author has to be a poetic master of language, such as John Banville, for instance. Williams is simply not such a master.The only reason this book is of any interest of all is that, amazingly, the author John Crowley obviously took some of his ideas from it. Lilliputown clearly gave Crowley ideas for what is considered his masterpiece (though not by me): "Little, Big". But, also, the surname Rasmussen, so prevalent in the Aegypt cycle - which IS Crowley's masterpiece! - is found herein, and nowhere else in literature that I've come across.The novel qua novel is an indescribably boring waste of time. For those looking to do a doctoral dissertation on Crowley and his influences, however, it is a treasure trove indeed!
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