« punky | Main | The Rooster »
February 13, 2005
my failure, entirely
filed under reviews: fiction
Here are a few novels I have tried to read or listen to on tape, recently, and failed. This means I drifted away and never could force myself back to finish. Atonement (McEwan); True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey); and the new translation/edition of Gilgamesh. I would never, ever claim that these books have nothing going for them, but I can state that where ever it is they were headed, I just wasn't in the frame of mind to go along for the ride. Atonement, in particular, I found hard to bear. It was so beautifully written and so lovingly observed, I liked all the characters extremely, and yet it went on and on, and with every paragraph I cringed a little more, knowing something awful was about to happen. It's the centerpiece of the novel, the crucial event, and it takes McEwan a terribly long time to get there. So long that I couldn't stand it anymore and stopped.Maybe I'll finish all of these novels when I'm in a different mood and love them to death. Entirely possible.
In the meantime, the ever thoughtful Robyn has sent me some interesting things to read that look much more my taste, at this point in time. I'll report back.
February 13, 2005 01:11 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.tiedtothetracks.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/344