#1308

She says thanks robstation01, and is glad you enjoyed! Amazon/Goodreads are probably the best places to leave a review.

#1309

Jumping on the bandwagon on this, but I read this as well and really enjoyed it. Impressive to keep interest going for so long with what should be a pretty unlikeable character, but I think the structure serves it well – mixing present day with her looking back through her archives is a neat device to work in the backstory, kept me hooked.

I wasn’t keen on the drugs bits – but then I find most writing about drugs / drug taking in books pretty boring (so that might just be me). Also had to mentally cross a number of people off my list of possible recommendees (is that a word?) when she killed the cat.

But I loved the conclusion of it, the moment at the end where Irina questions why no one is stopping her from doing these things is really strong and feels like a proper pay off for having followed her through all her antics.

1 Like
#1310

If the bandwagon is praise, keep it rolling! She says thanks for the kind words.

Regarding the drug stuff - some of the scenes were going to be much more drawn out. Someone gave her (good) early feedback that was basically like, “this is very accurate, but is also extremely boring”.

I’m surprised more people haven’t taken issue with the Cat, reading user reviews and stuff. I feel like that criticism will come eventually. It’s understandably a sensitive issue for many.

Glad you liked and found it interesting!

#1311

@roastthemonaspit Goodreads tells me you weren’t enamoured of Wolf in White Van but @McGarnagle had it in his top 20 of the century.

It’s on my to-reads but this list is pretty long. Who to believe?!

#1312

My local library has re-opened and this is my current haul:

IMG_20200815_164246
IMG_20200815_1642461488×1984 869 KB

That’s the next month sorted.

5 Likes
#1313

Follow your heart, Theo.

1 Like
#1314

:grimacing:

Ha ha

1 Like
#1315

The Plot Against America is great, did you pick it up because of the HBO series?

1 Like
#1316

Can’t understand why people get upset by that and not… all the other upsetting stuff. I’m not an animal person though.

I really enjoyed it btw, read it in a few days which is very rare for me these days, loved the slow disintegration of reality, the gradual ramping up of tension. All the references to films and stuff sent me off on lots of rabbit holes too!

Have now moved on to The Water Cure, to continue the theme of novels written by the partners of Dissers…

2 Likes
#1317

This is good

2 Likes
#1318

Yeah love this although I have a feeling some of the history it’s based on has since been revised?

Also think there’s a similar Inspector Morse story called The Wench is Dead although maybe the past mystery in that isn’t actually real.

1 Like
#1319

I would imagine so. It was published in 1951 after all.
I’m fairly sure there was a foreword or an afterword with a bit of an update in my edition

1 Like
#1320

No I read it years ago and, alongside both American Pastoral and Operation Shylock, it’s my favourite Roth novel. Saw it and thought I’d give it a second read.

Thanks for pointing out the HBO series.

#1321

Re-reading A Hundred Years of Solitude. I really want to get my head around how he creates such a dreamlike atmosphere - like “magical realism” is sometimes dismissed as “fantasy for literary snobs” but there’s something so specifically strange and fantastical that he nails effortlessly and that I can see in loads of other things that I love (Kentucky Route Zero, later Pynchon novels, etc.). As in the feeling of memory (both personal and ancestral) dwindling away over time, and how it’s evoked perfectly as a kind of tangible physical thing that occurs in the world, ya know

8 Likes
#1322

Reading the Age of Miracles by Karen Thomson Walker, enjoying the writing style so far, nice to use a more dreamy teen coming of age style to tell the story of a huge catastrophe.

Attempted to read the new Sara Pascoe and gave up, think it would be alright if she didn’t do the putting things she really things with lines through them thing, firstly it was irritating but it just came off really judgy and not very feminist - maybe read aloud it’d be better but I couldn’t stick with it.

#1324

I haven’t, but I’ll look into it! Hoping to rock up to a bookshop with a mask at some point cause I’ve been rereading for most of the year!

1 Like
#1325

My favourite novel.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel that creates such a vivid, authentic world that drags you in and totally immerses. The most exhilarating and, at times, exhausting of reads.

Have you ever read Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita?

Read them both around the same time and they both have familiar traits of magical realism, although I would argue that The Master and Margarita, although not creating such a Wild, fantastical world, is even more multifaceted, incorporating not just existential exploration but also philosophical and political allegories.

It’s deeply rewarding and I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it.

1 Like
#1326

I’m finding reading the Aeneid a bit of a slog but also really enjoying it at the same time somehow. Way beyond the chapters I had to read at school, but having read Le Guin’s Lavinia before I know what is coming. Glad I am reading it overall though, having dismissed it after the forced piecemeal school reading.

1 Like
#1327

See I didn’t get this feeling at all, which was disappointing. Then the peadophilia and incest meant I gave up on it just over halfway.

2 Likes
#1328

Studied the Aeneid at school. Might revisit it at some point. Would like to have a proper go at the Iliad and the Odyssey too. Especially after very much enjoying Circe by Madeline Miller. Not sure I’ve got the required attention span, though. Remember the versions I read bits of as teenager being much drier than the subject matter.

1 Like