Flaubert's Parrot by Dan Kavanagh (1990)

Firstly, eBay has the author wrongly listed for this work. It is by English author Julian Barnes, and not Dan Kavanagh, whoever he might be.

Julian Barnes is a fine writer and talented translator (from French to English). In Flaubert’s Parrot, a slim volume that is nonetheless quite richly seeded, Barnes employs a number of narrative devices including running commentaries, as it were, by Flaubert himself and various cronies, and an actual narrator in the form of Dr. Geoffrey Braithewaite. Unfortunately, the good doctor is a royal pain in the arse, and it is difficult to see what really useful purpose he serves by continually forcing himself upon the reader, as is his wont. In fact, this is a case, at times, of severe narratorial (sic) intrusion, and at its worst, it is most tedious, most tedious indeed.

This, then, is a work which often aspires to something like the greatness of the writer whose life is central to its literary plan, but continually runs out of puff since Dr. Braithewaite, one of the most boring characters you could ever hope to meet, insists on getting his prattle in every now again. I enjoyed large sections of this book; however, in spite of its slimness, in the end, I was unable to finish it.