John Mccullough's Reviews > An Instance of the Fingerpost

In 1920 Akutagawa Ryunosuke wrote a short story, "In a Grove." published in a Japanese literary magazine. It told the story of a murder as interpreted by three different people. The story was later made into a movie, "Rashomon." Pears' novel is a take-off on that idea. An Oxford instructor is found dead in March of 1663. The story of the murder, as is discovered, is told by four different people, two fictitious and two actual historical English personalities. One of the fictitious characters is modeled after an actual person, so perhaps the real ratio is 3:1. The novel is loaded with rich descriptions of Oxford in 1663, the political climate and the intellectual and medical environment of the times. I am afraid to say much more about the plot without pulling a spoiler blunder.

It is a long book written in some semblance of the contemporary vernacular (thankfully with modern spelling) so it is a long slog, made easier because it is well-written. The dialog and narrative flow smoothly and the text is broken into reasonable sections. Still, you will want to put the time aside, free of distraction, so you can fully enjoy the atmosphere, the history, and the political and religious intrigue built into the plots(s).