A not very good novella by Peter Straub, that might have turned into a better short story or a worse novel. Instead, we have this middle length story that is mysterious in some good ways, and wasteful and annoyingly crass in others. Ballard and Sandrine, he 65 or so, she 20 years younger…oftentimes lover, always confusing etc etc. We find ourselves on a boat trip on the Amazon on a boat in which the two lovers have been many times before, and in fact their previous selves might be on right now. So this book has them visit and revisit the places and times in their relationship that started with Sandrine, a 30 year “fixer” does some work for her father and eyes the younger girl then.
You know what? I don’t really care. This book is “mysterious” in the sense that we’re simply not given the tools to unravel it, but it’s not a very satisfying book as a consequence of this. We’re meant to ponder whether this is some kind of waiting room, some kind of pre-death, a purgatory, you know, that kind of thing, but so much of this book is preoccupied by sex in a way that is cloying and boring, and ultimately distracting. It’s not a sexy book, and it’s not an anti-sexy book. Instead it’s a book that has sex in it, but it’s talked about the way like a 19 year old kid would talk about it as the kind of thing we all agree is sexy about sex, without saying anything.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Ballard-Sandrine-eShort-ebook/dp/B008ED5FN2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SA981OZEZYOB&keywords=the+ballad+of+ballard+and+sandrine&qid=1571938362&s=books&sprefix=the+ballad+of+ballard%2Cstripbooks%2C229&sr=1-1)