C
Length of time in Possession : Nearly 2 years
C by Tom McCarthy is a strange little book, I got it when it was on the Booker shortlist nearly 2 years ago now, and had several false start attempts with it before finally completing it a few weeks ago.
Unlike many books I read in which I have a lot of areas to discuss about things I did and didn't enjoy with C I find myself at something of a loss.
C is the story of Serge Carrefax and the novel follows him through his childhood in the grounds of the Deaf School run by his father, then to a period of recuperation following an illness, then to the Great War and then Egypt.
Though the novel initially gets off to a good start : Serge's sister Sophie is an interesting character; after it moves on from his childhood and adolescence the novel entirely lost me, I understood what was going on but felt a total sense of disconnect as a reader from either the plot or the characters.
I read it but I was completely disinterested in it, and was not moved in any way by it nor engaged in its outcome.
I suppose fundamentally what I'm saying here is that I was bored, and couldn't find anything about it either remarkable or special which leaves me mystified at its Booker inclusion.
Sorry, Tom McCarthy
Verdict : 4/10
Destination : ebook storage
Showing posts with label Boring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boring. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Saturday, 23 June 2012
The White Lie by Andrea Gillies
The White Lie
Regular readers will note that this book unlike all my other blogposts is not preceded with a number informing my readership where I'm up to in the 100 books challenge, this is because The White Lie has the ignominious distinction of being the first book this year that I have failed to finish, and only the second novel in the last two years.
The novel is the story of the Salter extended family. Its narrator Michael is dead, and his death and the complex circumstances around it continue to haunt the family. I began the book and read about 25% of it according to my Kindle, but I wasn't enjoying it. I didn't like the style, nor the characters, found the plot though initially intriguing lacking in credibility, that such a big scandal could or particularly WOULD be covered up by such a large number of people of all ages over such an extended period of time. I also found the relationship definitions (as in who is whose sister, cousin etc) between characters confusing.
I left it and read something else, but I found when I re-opened it and came back to it, I just didn't want to carry on, I didn't care and I wasn't engaged, and I simply couldn't face plodding on interminably over what was a large percentage of book remaining. I bought this novel because of the sheer amount of 5 star reviews on Amazon, and now find myself utterly amazed by them, I don't know what I missed that seemed to click with so many, but blimey this book was boring.
Regular readers will note that this book unlike all my other blogposts is not preceded with a number informing my readership where I'm up to in the 100 books challenge, this is because The White Lie has the ignominious distinction of being the first book this year that I have failed to finish, and only the second novel in the last two years.
The novel is the story of the Salter extended family. Its narrator Michael is dead, and his death and the complex circumstances around it continue to haunt the family. I began the book and read about 25% of it according to my Kindle, but I wasn't enjoying it. I didn't like the style, nor the characters, found the plot though initially intriguing lacking in credibility, that such a big scandal could or particularly WOULD be covered up by such a large number of people of all ages over such an extended period of time. I also found the relationship definitions (as in who is whose sister, cousin etc) between characters confusing.
I left it and read something else, but I found when I re-opened it and came back to it, I just didn't want to carry on, I didn't care and I wasn't engaged, and I simply couldn't face plodding on interminably over what was a large percentage of book remaining. I bought this novel because of the sheer amount of 5 star reviews on Amazon, and now find myself utterly amazed by them, I don't know what I missed that seemed to click with so many, but blimey this book was boring.
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Book #52 Every Contact Leaves A Trace by Elanor Dymott
Every Contact Leaves A Trace
Every Contact Leaves A Trace is the story of Alex Petersen and his wife Rachel Cardadine who are Oxford graduates. One evening they attend a dinner at their former college at the invitation of a tutor but when Rachel goes walking alone, she is suddenly murdered, leaving Alex at a loss to know what happened.
Despite beginning with a murder, barely nothing happens throughout this book, a man muses on the sudden death of his wife and gets a new outlook on her past via her affectionate poetry tutor. The smell of elitism and snobbery wafts off the page and none of the characters are particularly likeable. Widower Alex Petersen is terminally dull whilst Godmother Evie is laughably pantomime.
As the truth about what happened to Rachel finally emerges the book becomes entirely ludicrous. The motivation for and execution of her murder is ridiculous; overblown in its utter absurdity, and there is a total absence of believability. In reference to Evie it again lacks all credulity that she would cut Rachel off for her extremely minor in the relative face of it youthful transgressions or indeed be so close to inhuman in her lack of compassion to both widower Alex and god-daughter Rachel whilst living. More importantly until Alex begins to be filled in on the background and some semblance of truth emerges, this book, is I hate to say it, extremely boring or at least it was to me. Dull as dishwater I was both skimming and page counting willing it to just end already. 3/10
Every Contact Leaves A Trace is the story of Alex Petersen and his wife Rachel Cardadine who are Oxford graduates. One evening they attend a dinner at their former college at the invitation of a tutor but when Rachel goes walking alone, she is suddenly murdered, leaving Alex at a loss to know what happened.
Despite beginning with a murder, barely nothing happens throughout this book, a man muses on the sudden death of his wife and gets a new outlook on her past via her affectionate poetry tutor. The smell of elitism and snobbery wafts off the page and none of the characters are particularly likeable. Widower Alex Petersen is terminally dull whilst Godmother Evie is laughably pantomime.
As the truth about what happened to Rachel finally emerges the book becomes entirely ludicrous. The motivation for and execution of her murder is ridiculous; overblown in its utter absurdity, and there is a total absence of believability. In reference to Evie it again lacks all credulity that she would cut Rachel off for her extremely minor in the relative face of it youthful transgressions or indeed be so close to inhuman in her lack of compassion to both widower Alex and god-daughter Rachel whilst living. More importantly until Alex begins to be filled in on the background and some semblance of truth emerges, this book, is I hate to say it, extremely boring or at least it was to me. Dull as dishwater I was both skimming and page counting willing it to just end already. 3/10
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Book #46 Look At Me by Jennifer Egan
Look At Me
Look At Me is the story of Charlotte Swenson, a model whose face is damaged so badly in a car crash, that following reconstructive surgery she becomes unrecognisable to those who knew her. It is also the story of Charlotte Hauser, Charlotte Swenson's teenage namesake, the daughter of her estranged best friend, and the narrative switches between the two protagonists.
The prose is often well written and has some great identifiable moments throughout such as :
In some ways it felt like two separate novels merged, a novel on loss of beauty, and a novel on loss of innocence; as though perhaps originally there had been only one Charlotte and Egan did not know whether to focus on her youth or her adulthood. The storyline involving the mysterious Z who solidifies a link between the two feels completely preposterous and tenuous due to excessive coincidence.
As a character himself Z is less an enigma than a thin sketch, abrupt and confusing, his lack of detail as a character is incredibly frustrating.
It goes on in one strand to make a point about the modern development of Individuals who are not famous for their work but are commodities of themselves, brands, like for example Snooki or the Kardashians. Personally I'm getting incredibly bored of novels which shoehorn in some annoying parody of the real world in order to make some kind of redundant pseudo-intellectual contemporary social comment. It's been overdone.
The ultimate problem was that I found that the longer I read this novel, the more I failed to care about it or its characters, so much so that as I approached the end I was page counting. When you end up page counting you know you hate the book.....
Not for me. 5/10
Look At Me is the story of Charlotte Swenson, a model whose face is damaged so badly in a car crash, that following reconstructive surgery she becomes unrecognisable to those who knew her. It is also the story of Charlotte Hauser, Charlotte Swenson's teenage namesake, the daughter of her estranged best friend, and the narrative switches between the two protagonists.
The prose is often well written and has some great identifiable moments throughout such as :
"When she thought of herself a year ago she remembered a girl with outsized hopes, a girl who believed the world had made secret arrangements in her favour. Charlotte hated her"The premise too is a really good one, life beyond disfigurement, an interesting story to be told. Unfortunately this really isn't that story. Though this is the novels central plot, the story of the younger Charlotte has naught to do with this idea. Furthermore it is the younger Charlotte who is the more intriguing and likeable character. Older Charlotte the model is an irritating arrogant character to be in the company of, and the opportunity for psychological reflections on the nature of disfigurement does not take place, so much so that I do wonder if Egan even bothered to consult people who had experienced like tragedies.
In some ways it felt like two separate novels merged, a novel on loss of beauty, and a novel on loss of innocence; as though perhaps originally there had been only one Charlotte and Egan did not know whether to focus on her youth or her adulthood. The storyline involving the mysterious Z who solidifies a link between the two feels completely preposterous and tenuous due to excessive coincidence.
As a character himself Z is less an enigma than a thin sketch, abrupt and confusing, his lack of detail as a character is incredibly frustrating.
It goes on in one strand to make a point about the modern development of Individuals who are not famous for their work but are commodities of themselves, brands, like for example Snooki or the Kardashians. Personally I'm getting incredibly bored of novels which shoehorn in some annoying parody of the real world in order to make some kind of redundant pseudo-intellectual contemporary social comment. It's been overdone.
The ultimate problem was that I found that the longer I read this novel, the more I failed to care about it or its characters, so much so that as I approached the end I was page counting. When you end up page counting you know you hate the book.....
Not for me. 5/10
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