Lost Lambs - Madeline Cash
Three sort of dysfunctional sisters and their dysfunctional parents, and antics spiraling out of control. It reminded me of A Fraction of the Whole with its humour (although not as great as that book of course), The Bee Sting with its family, and Birnam Wood with its plot as it went on. I mostly liked the plot when it started happening, but it felt a bit rushed and tidy at the end. Think I preferred the general dysfunctions of the family. But I had an enjoyable fun read throughout. Alternating between an 8 or 9/10 for me.
Evil Genius - Claire Oshetsky
Set in the 1970s, a 19 year-old woman working in a call centre, married to a rubbish older man. and some wishy washy plot about… I don’t know what really. It started off okay, but I lost patience with it as it went on, making it feel a bit pointless or ‘things happen’ without much input from the main character. I loved Chouette, but the two following books have been a disappointment. Still some very good book recommendations from the author’s Goodreads account though - surely they wouldn’t recommend their own book if it had been written by someone else, but who knows! At least it was short. 5/10
The Wax Child - Olga Ravn
and now some International Booker longlistees. I really liked her Employees book set in the far future, and so this was a change of scene with witch trials and a wax child doll in Denmark in the 1600s. Found it a bit of a tough read at times, just not too clear, even if I appreciated the writing. Some parts did shine through, but hard to know if I’d recommend it. 7/10
The Deserters - Mathias Enard
An International Booker longlistee. Two unrelated novellas (as far as most reviews seem to suggest), alternating from one to another as you read through. One set in some unknown time/country, with a man having escaped from an army and his journeying across who-knows-where, whilst the other storyline is mostly in Germany around the time of 9/11, for a celebration of a deceased mathematician. I liked the former story, and mixed opinions of the second one. Felt a bit random to have the two stories together, but I think I mostly liked it. 7/10
Taiwan Travelogue - Yang Shuang-zi
Another IB library borrow. The premise was quite interesting - Pretending to be a rediscovered Japanese book written in the 1950s about a visit to Taiwan in the 1950s, ‘translated’ by a Taiwanese author - leading to real life Taiwanese people being disappointed to find out that it was actually written by the ‘translator’. (and then obviously translated into English now)
Vaguely good intentioned but really obnoxious Japanese writer visits Taiwan, befriends a local translator to ‘experience’ Taiwan for a year, and is obsessed with food and eating. It gave me flashbacks of Butter, and then I decided to give it up after 30% as I was losing interest and reviews didn’t make me think I’d enjoy the rest of the book. So long for my vague intention of reading all of the IB books this year, but think I’m happier to give up if I’m not going to love it!
