cxxvii. mrs dalloway, virginia woolf
hustle and bustle and life.
going to list this one as an incomplete, the line of beauty, alan hollinghurst
once upon a time a patient walked into my room holding the brick that is 'the stranger's child', upon which i enquired as to its merits and read-worthiness; it was within my general possession at the time, as i had borrowed it from the library. he informed me that he had 30 pages to go and 'not to bother' because he didn't expect it to improve within 30 pages but just wanted to get through it. however he did far recommend 'the line of beauty' instead. so i did not bother bothering with the stranger's child, also in part because of the book's poor portability with regards to public transport entertainment, but i did borrow the line of beauty, which was a mistake. (there is no specific synonym for 'reading'!! this is a problem i can't believe i didn't realise until now.)
are you ready for some vitriol, i don't even care. the beginning lifts the entire premise, basically, of brideshead revisited, and puts it in the 80s with appropriate promiscuity and less innuendo (not in a good way). i hadn't even seen any reviews prior to reading and don't even care so much about brideshead revisited apart from reading it once, and yet even to me it was so blatantly obvious! add to that the fact that there was no interesting, true-personality-revealing crisis to speak of, at least not at the beginning, which seems now to be very important in any kind of good storytelling, and the amount i cared about the spoilt, self-involved characters correspondingly depreciated exponentially.
to conclude, this was one of the few books in a long time that i haven't cared enough to finish.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
officially the book with the worst title i have read in a while
cxxvi. the marriage plot, jeffrey eugenides
my expectations were low to begin with after a friend said that it was not worth rushing out to buy. so it actually started well, and compared to the books i read just before it, i read most of the words for real and was drawn along by the pace of writing. i kept looking for something deeper than 'which boy will she end up with?' and realised after the first half that what i thought was going to be the introduction to something further was never going to get there.
let me compare this to jonathan franzen's freedom, since they both have david foster wallace tributes, which frankly i don't care so much about. at least the marriage plot's characters were mostly likeable, whereas freedom's characters were mostly unlikeable. i enjoyed the setting of the 80s more, it seems more like a real book for some reason. i don't really understand why freedom's generation y late 2000s setting and feel was so annoying to me. it felt vacuous like a mcmansion. with the wrong kind of offputting american arrogance. but comparatively the marriage plot was so small in scope. like a nothing much. engaging writing, to be sure, but i expected deeper.
also where are the women in this authorial boys' club? that's what i really want to know.
my expectations were low to begin with after a friend said that it was not worth rushing out to buy. so it actually started well, and compared to the books i read just before it, i read most of the words for real and was drawn along by the pace of writing. i kept looking for something deeper than 'which boy will she end up with?' and realised after the first half that what i thought was going to be the introduction to something further was never going to get there.
let me compare this to jonathan franzen's freedom, since they both have david foster wallace tributes, which frankly i don't care so much about. at least the marriage plot's characters were mostly likeable, whereas freedom's characters were mostly unlikeable. i enjoyed the setting of the 80s more, it seems more like a real book for some reason. i don't really understand why freedom's generation y late 2000s setting and feel was so annoying to me. it felt vacuous like a mcmansion. with the wrong kind of offputting american arrogance. but comparatively the marriage plot was so small in scope. like a nothing much. engaging writing, to be sure, but i expected deeper.
also where are the women in this authorial boys' club? that's what i really want to know.
Friday, February 3, 2012
i love the library too much for a kindle
cxxiii. bossypants, tina fey
this was ok. there were some funny turns of phrase, but given allllll the hype my cynicism regarding mainstream trends and what is considered 'good' has redoubled itself. YES I AM AN ASSHOLE. quality is very important to me, i can't stress this enough. real quality, not just money floating around spilt from the slack-jawed wallets of sheep.
cxxiv. orlando, virginia woolf
now this is real writing. i mean comparatively, not that much happens in terms of plot events and specifics and conversation. who cares, when you can write like that you don't need to keep everyone's attention with melodrama and explanations.
cxxv. veronica and cxxvi. because they wanted to, mary gaitskill
dear mary gaitskill, continuing on from my last review i would like to ask what is it that gives you such insight into the inner lives of dentists at work? i am genuinely curious. to wit: '"he kept heaving back, sort of panting with exertion, and he'd say, in that voice of inhuman dentist calm, 'just a little more...'"' come on. how do you know we're all acting on the outside? it's like you've truly balanced on the edge between the calm façade and the torrential internal stress complete with peppered (self-) encouragements. after that i didn't even care about the rest of the book although it was pretty good.
this was ok. there were some funny turns of phrase, but given allllll the hype my cynicism regarding mainstream trends and what is considered 'good' has redoubled itself. YES I AM AN ASSHOLE. quality is very important to me, i can't stress this enough. real quality, not just money floating around spilt from the slack-jawed wallets of sheep.
cxxiv. orlando, virginia woolf
now this is real writing. i mean comparatively, not that much happens in terms of plot events and specifics and conversation. who cares, when you can write like that you don't need to keep everyone's attention with melodrama and explanations.
cxxv. veronica and cxxvi. because they wanted to, mary gaitskill
dear mary gaitskill, continuing on from my last review i would like to ask what is it that gives you such insight into the inner lives of dentists at work? i am genuinely curious. to wit: '"he kept heaving back, sort of panting with exertion, and he'd say, in that voice of inhuman dentist calm, 'just a little more...'"' come on. how do you know we're all acting on the outside? it's like you've truly balanced on the edge between the calm façade and the torrential internal stress complete with peppered (self-) encouragements. after that i didn't even care about the rest of the book although it was pretty good.
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