So you didn't even list it as one of your books I see but B suggested it and it came in the mail and I read it. I think my effort and time should be rewarded by some sort of discussion. Who's in?
Oof. I agree that you deserve a badge of honor. I read about 90 pages of it and just couldn't do it. I suppose the question I have is did you ever feel pulled in by the characters? My issue was that I felt the book read like a showcase of ideas not a novel where stories are told. A broader question that keeps coming up as I read these magical realism or speculative pieces is, at what point does an editorial become a novel? There are sections of everything we've read thus far (or in this case in the first 90 pages) where the characters were just ciphers for argument and counter-argument to showcase (be they interesting or not) ideas.
Hmm..I feel that my grumpy day is leading to a snotty series of questions. I will quit before i get even further into my own navel.
For some reason I keep messing up the concept of getting notified when there is a reply or else I would have written sooner. So here are my thoughts - first of all I felt like I had missed out on the preceding novel. As if there was a book that came before that gave all of the background info and depth to the characters. A good novel gives me this movie picture in my head and I couldn't get past a list of qualities in my head - no picture at all. When Anderson dies in the end I didn't feel a thing at all because he wasn't that real to me. Now, there's something to be said for a character that you feel nothing for - on purpose - but none of them were that way. There were so many interesting starts to the characters. Did you get as far as the generipper with the ladyboys? Now that could have been its own story. It wasn't interesting- don't get me wrong there - but it COULD have been. And the whole pirate concept - the guy that burned ship cargo to make a political statement - he was a really good guy. And in contrast, his second in command was a double agent. There could have been a million more thoughts and actions in that part of the story. Maybe, again, its own interesting story. I did get incredibly annoyed by words that never got explained. Obviously "farang" was foreigner and dirigible was a type of...flying? ship. I took issue with the sound of the words as they came off my tongue. Did the author not speak them aloud to see if they were smooth and pleasant? And there's no excuse of using harsh feeling words for that effect - it wasn't for that purpose. It was just clanky and awkward. I loved the concept of the characters and the idea of the overall plot but it seems to me that if I was an English professor I could have a blast asking my students to rewrite parts of the novel, a chapter here, a character there - and REALLY make them come alive. I've never read a book with so much wasted potential.
3 comments:
Oof. I agree that you deserve a badge of honor. I read about 90 pages of it and just couldn't do it.
I suppose the question I have is did you ever feel pulled in by the characters?
My issue was that I felt the book read like a showcase of ideas not a novel where stories are told.
A broader question that keeps coming up as I read these magical realism or speculative pieces is, at what point does an editorial become a novel? There are sections of everything we've read thus far (or in this case in the first 90 pages) where the characters were just ciphers for argument and counter-argument to showcase (be they interesting or not) ideas.
Hmm..I feel that my grumpy day is leading to a snotty series of questions. I will quit before i get even further into my own navel.
You've finished it? Well, I would love to hear your opinion... what did you think of the book? Which way is your thumb pointing?
And characters - did they speak to you, did they come alive, or did they remain flat and static for the entire book?
Did the book ever develop into a story or did it remain fractured and as AHegg put it, "a showcase of ideas?"
Am happy to discuss the book further!
For some reason I keep messing up the concept of getting notified when there is a reply or else I would have written sooner. So here are my thoughts - first of all I felt like I had missed out on the preceding novel. As if there was a book that came before that gave all of the background info and depth to the characters. A good novel gives me this movie picture in my head and I couldn't get past a list of qualities in my head - no picture at all. When Anderson dies in the end I didn't feel a thing at all because he wasn't that real to me. Now, there's something to be said for a character that you feel nothing for - on purpose - but none of them were that way. There were so many interesting starts to the characters. Did you get as far as the generipper with the ladyboys? Now that could have been its own story. It wasn't interesting- don't get me wrong there - but it COULD have been. And the whole pirate concept - the guy that burned ship cargo to make a political statement - he was a really good guy. And in contrast, his second in command was a double agent. There could have been a million more thoughts and actions in that part of the story. Maybe, again, its own interesting story. I did get incredibly annoyed by words that never got explained. Obviously "farang" was foreigner and dirigible was a type of...flying? ship. I took issue with the sound of the words as they came off my tongue. Did the author not speak them aloud to see if they were smooth and pleasant? And there's no excuse of using harsh feeling words for that effect - it wasn't for that purpose. It was just clanky and awkward. I loved the concept of the characters and the idea of the overall plot but it seems to me that if I was an English professor I could have a blast asking my students to rewrite parts of the novel, a chapter here, a character there - and REALLY make them come alive. I've never read a book with so much wasted potential.
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