The Biographer's Tale - A.S. Byatt

It is impossible to read The Biographer's Tale without being reminded of Byatt's masterpiece Possession, which similarly weaves together a romance with a discussion on the impossibility of biography (and, implicitly, the necessity of fiction). This book does not benefit from the comparison.

Byatt throws so many elements into the mix - taxonomy, bees, eugenics, Ibsen - that they fail to cohere into a central argument. That this seems to be the point is no compensation to the frustrated reader.