I started this book after reading that it was an unpublished manuscript of the infamous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I stayed because I also learned that he wrote/submitted this manuscript when he was 23 years old (a significant age to me at this time). I liked how they kept the words/sentences he crossed out in the original.

A lot of the novel reminded me of some of his earlier works like”The Americans Tale” where the narrator (main character) babbles a lot, like they just talk for extended periods of time about their thoughts and it just spirals. I understand that the premise of the novel is a man with gout thats to remain at home for an extended period of time, so all he really can do is think and contemplate and you, as the reader, are on the journey with him. It got a little difficult to focus since it felt like there was no story, its just the thoughts and opinions of this fifty year old man stuck in his house. I would still give it a read if want to look at the beginnings of ACD novel writing but as a novel/story by itself, without its infamous writer counterpart, it’s a little laking to me. It was very difficult to finish this book, I think I skimmed over so much of it I would barely consider it read.