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2.75 AVERAGE
2.75 AVERAGE
Not the best of Edward St Aubyn's novels but good anyway.
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
very juvenile & highly pretentious. disappointing stuff with some pretty torturous prose.
I liked the Patrick Melrose novels a lot, but this one was a struggle. Too much talking and thinking, not enough story. That might have actually been the point he was trying to make, about his characters. Perhaps you're meant to find it tiring to read about people talking about consciousness.
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
I honestly don’t know what was the point of this book
A writer finds out his terminally ill and this follows the last months of his life. Introspective, funny, and ironic. A solid read all around.
sometimes reading St. aubyn's books stresses me out because I don't feel smart enough to follow every word or train of thought. but then I remember that I don't have to, that I just swim through them and chuckle when I do grasp something, or when the long paragraphs in the nature of consciousness give way to descriptions of yachtbound lunch parties that read aristocracy for filth.
this one flew by, which is surprising given that there were some sentences I re-read or couldn't get past for half a day.
here was my favorite paragraph:
well, those of us who are dying -- as opposed to those who are lounging around in their studies making dinner engagements, and then reluctantly disconnecting the phone for twenty minutes in order to browse through a medical textbook and look up some realistic details -- those of us who are really dying haven't got time to ponder the past. the present is scintillating with horror and precision. the past is a luxury for people who think they have a future. does my life have subtle connecting threads, strange coincidences, uniting themselves? you'd better believe it. things can't help repeating themselves, can't help colliding. that's not meaning, that's where the search for meaning begins.
this one flew by, which is surprising given that there were some sentences I re-read or couldn't get past for half a day.
here was my favorite paragraph:
well, those of us who are dying -- as opposed to those who are lounging around in their studies making dinner engagements, and then reluctantly disconnecting the phone for twenty minutes in order to browse through a medical textbook and look up some realistic details -- those of us who are really dying haven't got time to ponder the past. the present is scintillating with horror and precision. the past is a luxury for people who think they have a future. does my life have subtle connecting threads, strange coincidences, uniting themselves? you'd better believe it. things can't help repeating themselves, can't help colliding. that's not meaning, that's where the search for meaning begins.
About a screenwriter who has 6 months to live. Kind of pretentious. Starts out pretty funny then peters out.