zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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The most tedious book I have ever read. I forced myself to endure right to the end, but it was not worth it. It is a gloomfest without redemption. How could this possibly have won the Booker? Were they having a laugh? Evidently not if they read this.
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Unimpressed.
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If I was to describe this book in one word, it would be 'flat'.
But I'll expand.
The book promised wit and humour, but delivered little. I found the author's style confusing, scatty and in places self indulgent (gratuitous use of swearing and the c word in particular). At times, a scene was set and held my attention, but there was a distinct lack of plot. The issues of suicide, abuse etc could have been hard hitting, but were void of emotion in my opinion.
I finished the book as it was a holiday read, but was glad to turn the final page, if a little frustrated with the vague conclusion.
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Derivative and dull
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Some luminous patches of writing fail to disguise a poor structure and terrible paucity of ideas. This ground has been covered far too often and so much better.
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Annoying
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The basic flaw of this book, it seems to me, is that it is written in the first person, but tries to tell a story spanning 3 generations. The idea that the main character is supposed to be using her imagination to reconstruct a possible reality which existed before her time fails entirely to work for me, given that the detail and incident in the 'memories' is so vivid and so integral to the attempt at meaning in the book. In any case, if she's not sure she's making it all up, neither is the reader, which eventually undermines almost every character.
The whole thing reads like a poor attempt to emulate A.L. Kennedy, though even this might have been more successful if the explicit metaphors were not repeatedly confused and inappropriate (for example, on page 109, Charlie is imagined bidding his bachelor days farewell, "the ravishing, tawdry, endless tristesse of one woman or another....until a man had to address his member as you might a dribbling dog, 'Enough, sir! Enough.'"
Quite apart from the fact that it surely ought to have been 'he might', instead of 'you might', whoever addressed their dog as 'sir'?
Who was on that Man Booker Jury?
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Some nice prose, but it's so boring!
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I found this book very difficult to read, it was intensely boring. I didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them in the end. I think Veronica should have walked into the sea with Liam and saved us all from her boring, contradictory monologue. It was one big yawn and I only managed two pages before I dozed off at night, so I guess it had some use!
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