I really appreciated someone doing a story about T.S Elliot, it may have been fiction but it felt like it was true to the real person. It was wonderfully written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

I absolutely loved this book – but a word of warning - you really do need at least a basic knowledge of T S Eliot’s life and work, and preferably at least some acquaintance with the people he knew and in whose circles he moved, otherwise I fear a lot of the book will simply pass you by. But if you do know something of his poetry and milieu, then this original and unusual book will almost certainly prove to be a great joy. It’s a fresh examination of Eliot’s often conflicted inner world as he struggled with his writing, his friends, his sexuality and his place in the world, his ever-present angst about finding his true voice and his true being. His most famous work is not called The Wasteland for nothing and here we see how his inner world is as much a wasteland as is the era of the Roaring Twenties in which he lived. I loved the style, with its mix of prose and poetry, often rhyming, and the rich imagery taken from his poems. The book is a vivid recreation of Eliot and his times, a fictionalised biography that seemed to me to express a reality that has not often been explored. It could be that Eliot purists will jib at the exposure of Eliot as gay, but I found this side of him fascinating indeed. I raced through the book, finding the writing compelling and entertaining, and feel that I have gained yet more insight into this most enigmatic of poets.

So I have never read anything by T.S. Eliot nor do I know anything about him so maybe this was not the book for me. Now I am assuming that some knowledge of his poems would assist with understanding some of the fictional/supernatural characters in the story. (If not then the structure just did not work for me.) Which makes me feel like I cannot truly evaluate this book. One of the issues with telling fictionalized stories of real, famous people's lives is that the reader spends so much time wondering how much is true. This book is definitely one of those types of books.
Here is the basic premise of the book.
The Wasteland is a fictionalized telling of Eliot's entry into fame and acceptance by English poetry society. Eliot meet a man at the bank that he works at and despite his subconscious trying to keep him away, Eliot begins a relationship with this man. Now this is not accepted so Eliot marries the waitress at a coffee house but it is not a happy one.
If you like fantastical elements or really know about T.S. Eliot then maybe you might enjoy this book but I feel like it would have worked better if it was not specifically about Eliot but instead just a truly fictional story.

Humorous, yet deeply sad, this book delves into what it means to be an artist in a time where you're isolated because of who you inherently are. I was hoping for more depth in the story.