For the last few days I've been hooked by Christo Tsolkias' The Slap, which has sucked me in on many levels... not least being the impressive amount of infidelity and recreational drug use which apparently happens every day in suburban Melbourne.
Either my friends are amazingly conservative (doubtful) or incredibly good at keeping secrets (HIGHLY doubtful), but I just don't think the host of our last bbq was high on an E and floated down on a bong and a snitched Valium a few hours later.
I could, of course, be entirely wrong.
Still, the book was interesting going and will probably endure another few days being towed about as I read it again. (Yes, I read books repetitively; otherwise I'd never get anything done for being in want of a new book to read...ok, that sounds a little paradoxical).
Pygmy (Chuck Palahniuk) also sits in my recently-read pile; it took a little more deciphering than Tsolkias, being reasonably unstructured and ungrammatical; in a couple of places I had to stop and read aloud with shifting emphasis to try to make sense of the lexicon; I got there, but it's not for the faint-hearted (although there's nothing terribly queasy-making in there, unlike Haunted). And now? Well, over breakfast I started to reread Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed. It's good prose, a legitimate and authentic voice. What else should I be chasing?
A friend of mine just recomended I'd read that book. Though she also recomended Middlesex which I just read and to be honest I didn't really enjoy that much. So, mind if I ask you for a second opinion on that?
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I REALLY enjoyed Middlesex, so maybe we have different tastes.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think The Hour I first Believed has a lot in common with that book. Was it the voice of the narrator that put you off Middlesex or the subject matter?
hmm, well I actually enjoyed the latter part of the book, where Cal becomes the focus of the story rather than just the narrator. The story lines leading up to that part though, not so much. I just didn't empathize with any of the charachters and even found them a bit annoying at times. I know I'm a minority in having this opinion of this book, but I can't help it. I really wanted to love it, and maybe that was the problem, that I expected too much or just something different.
ReplyDeleteOh, and duh, I didn't specify but the book I had recomended to me was "the slap", not "the hour I first believed". Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read anything for fun for quite some time because of studying.
ReplyDeleteBut I am reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets at the moment and it's very good if you like that sort of thing.
Josefine, I think you'd really enjoy "The Slap". I'm not sure who you'd identify with, but I think it would hold onto you as it moved through character focuses (foci?)I wanted more of middlesex...hate that hanging ending! Hey, aren't you in Melbourne? I can send you my copy if you want; chelzigirl at hotmail dot com your address if you'd like it posted...this can be my first blog giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI'm on it! Wow, this is very exciting!
ReplyDelete