3.5 Midlife crises are not only the men's domain. Case in point - All Fours
This was my first encounter with Miranda July's writing.
I love books about 3.5 Midlife crises are not only the men's domain. Case in point - All Fours
This was my first encounter with Miranda July's writing.
I love books about complicated, unravelling women, if they're middle-aged, there's a bonus for relatability. The narrator of this novel is a semi-famous artist, who lives a charmed life with her husband and child. She's forty-five, and she's ambivalent about the mundanity of life, the many sandwiches she has made and will make, the monotony of long-term relationships, and realising she's becoming invisible to men. She takes to driving to New York from LA. She has a stopover in a place just outside her home. What was supposed to be a refilling stop becomes a three-week adventure/unravelling/unbecoming/reemerging.
I didn't find this novel amusing. There were several cringe moments, unsavoury behaviours and obsessions. Some acts are described in more detail than most of us are accustomed to reading about in a novel. There was a lot of compulsive self-pleasuring, I guess if you want something done well, you have to do it yourself. ;-)
I don't have to love a character or agree with their choices in order to appreciate a novel. While I didn't hate listening to this via July's narration, I never felt fully invested or wowed....more
Ingvar is a grieving father, who's been walking across Australia for three years. He's scraggly-looking, a loner who stays aIndeed, why do horses run?
Ingvar is a grieving father, who's been walking across Australia for three years. He's scraggly-looking, a loner who stays away from people. He ends up in a small town. Hilda, an older woman on a farm, allows him to take shelter in her abandoned, ramshackle shed. She's suspicious. He needs a place to rest.
Told via very short chapters, this Australian debut novel does a great job portraying guilt, grief, loneliness, and the power of small kindnesses.
The ending was unexpected and an interesting choice....more
This was another fast-paced novel by Sally Hepworth, a great palate cleanser for this reader.
It's about three foster girls, who are now women in theirThis was another fast-paced novel by Sally Hepworth, a great palate cleanser for this reader.
It's about three foster girls, who are now women in their thirties. On the outside, they're doing fine, but they have their traumas and struggles. There are many POVs and timeline changes, but I didn't mind it.
Thelonious Ellison is a professor and novelist. His novels are too intellectual, too high-brow, to the point of being incomprehensible. When his la4.5
Thelonious Ellison is a professor and novelist. His novels are too intellectual, too high-brow, to the point of being incomprehensible. When his latest novel is being rejected on account of making no sense, he's despondent, seeing what type of novel is at the top of the best sellers list only lowers his spirit. To make things worse, his family is going through a series of crises and a tragedy.
Pissed off, Thelonious takes to writing in the style of a ghetto thug. He's having so much fun with it. His unamused agent will submit it, under a pseudonym. Surprises follow!
This novel is a brilliant satire about the literary and publishing world, about race and the limitations and expectations associated with one's skin colour, which make Thelonious feel like he does not fit in anywhere.
This is the fourth Everett novel that I read in the past two years. I'm in awe of his intelligence and how he twists language to make a point or several in just the right number of pages. So often, I found myself guffawing.
As I said in a previous update, Sean Crisden's delivery is worthy of an award or several.
Before reading this, my husband and I watched American Fiction, which we appreciated for the most part, but were puzzled by its ending. I wonder if Everett was OK with it, as the movie's ending was over the top and different to his novel. ...more
I saw the Spanish movie trailer for Un Amor and I noticed it was adapted from a Spanish novel, which had been translated into English and, fortunat2.5
I saw the Spanish movie trailer for Un Amor and I noticed it was adapted from a Spanish novel, which had been translated into English and, fortunately, my library had a copy. Apparently, this was also named as one of the best Spanish novels of the year.
Disclaimer: I tend to be less judgy with book and movie characters, and admittedly, I'm more benevolent with non-English literature.
The premise: Nat, in her thirties, moves from the city to a tiny, desolate Spanish village, where she rents a run-down, ugly house. If you think this novel employs the sea change trope where the city girl discovers the wonders of country living including an available hunk of a man who's waiting for the right woman, this is the complete opposite. The village is far from picturesque, the people are either old or weird, and the landlord is creepy, making Nat shake in her boots. My contrary personality who enjoys different now and then - thought this was a promising novel.
(view spoiler)[We're in Nat's head, albeit the narration is in the third person. Nat doesn't articulate many things, she's a mystery. Her personality is very subdued, to the point of not having any. Anyway, she's new in the village, so she gets to know her neighbours, Piter is a hippy-looking, stained-glass artist of sorts.
Then there's the German, who provides her with vegetables now and then. A few other small village characters pop up. Even Nat's dog which the landlord supplied her with is terrible. Poor Nat! Nat has a penchant for avoiding work at all costs. She's a translator who never translates, despite having money woes.
The rain finally comes and there are leaks everywhere. The creepy landlord wouldn't do anything about it. But then, the German comes to the rescue, he'll fix it for her if only "she'll let him enter her a little". Yep, you read that correctly. He's twelve years older, not much to look at. Intriguing... Different. Upon some consideration, Nat takes him on. The sex is quick, perfunctory and safe. He does a great job with the roof. Boredom and loneliness can make people act strangely. Nat finds herself back for more. I mean who among us doesn't like a man who can do things around the house, right? The sex is very satisfying, the guy has incredible stamina, there's little talking, no promises, and no sleeping over. But Nat can't be content with just that. She turns into an obsessive teenager, she tries to extract proclamations from the simple guy and is amazed when he truthfully answers her question - what do you mean you weren't bedazzled by my youth and beauty? (sarcasm) I mean, I get it, who among us hasn't imagined the man was much deeper, better than he actually was?
Anyway, I went along for the ride. I cringed at how pathetic Nat was. Of course, she's got a prince in shining armour in her neighbour Piter, who would have been more believable had he been gay. A few other bad things happen to Nat, because we all know trouble loves company. (hide spoiler)]
I was taken aback by the ending and everything else before that. The characters felt unreal, they didn't act like most people would. After a while, Nat got tiresome, it was difficult to feel bad for her. While idiocy is not solely the prerogative of the young and inexperienced, it's extra grating and pathetic when the person is in her thirties. Also, I realised Nat is one of those women who don't seem be to able to connect with other women, big thumbs down/red flag for me, not that it was declared in the novel.
While I liked the writing style and it kept me reading, after finishing the novel, I felt empty and unsatisfied....more
I almost DNF this, but other readers convinced me to keep going.
My Brilliant Sister is a genre-bending novel, made up of three stories. It starts w3.5
I almost DNF this, but other readers convinced me to keep going.
My Brilliant Sister is a genre-bending novel, made up of three stories. It starts with the story of Ida, a Kiwi who moved to Melbourne with her husband, a writer, and their young daughter. Ida is stressed, working as a high school English teacher during the pandemic no less, in a city which frequently locked down. Juggling a demanding job, a young child and a household doesn't allow for much time to do what one wants - writing a novel and/or trying to get a position as an academic. She's resentful of her husband, whose life is smooth, he's unencumbered by domestic mundanities, carving many hours to do his thing. Besides, he unilaterally decided that the family should move to Melbourne.
The second and longest part is a fictionalised account of Stella Miles Franklin's sister, who by all accounts was nowhere near as passionate, restless, and challenging as her older, famous writer sister, who wrote My Brilliant Career a famous, autofiction novel that is still studied in Australian schools today. (I'm yet to read it, although I have a copy on my bookshelf). Via letters to her sister, Linda paints a picture of accepting domesticity and one's diminished role. Fair or not, this longer account got boring to me after a while, so I considered abandoning the audiobook.
The last part is about Stella, a famous musician from New Zealand, who's dealing with the loss of a relationship with a band member and finds herself alone and lonely. There's a price for everything, every choice has a consequence. Domesticity, motherhood, and careers seem to collide, pull and push. How many of our choices are free will? Are there people with no regrets, people who wondered about paths not taken?
My Brilliant Sister is an excellent debut novel that showcases Brown's writing skills. I'm looking forward to reading her next book.
Ordinary Human Failings is seemingly a thriller, mystery.
Nolan's writing shines when it comes to characterisations. Told via multiple POVs, over decaOrdinary Human Failings is seemingly a thriller, mystery.
Nolan's writing shines when it comes to characterisations. Told via multiple POVs, over decades, it has at its centre the Greens, an Irish family who moved to London. This is a novel about disenfranchisement, mistakes that affect one’s once promising future, lack of opportunities, depression, alcoholism, loneliness to name just a few of the themes. Nolan does a great job humanising all the individuals, even the very flawed.
Ordinary Human Failings is worth checking out – the writing is masterful, the narrator, Jessica Regan, was top notch....more
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