A review by purslane
Spring by David Szalay
4.0
The perspective shifts about, from standard-issue Szalay useless male protagonist to out-of-his-class girlfriend and vicious horse trainer, but no matter where we go it's never really spring. It's really chilly, damp, unhappy. Hardly a hint of sunshine. And finally what are these characters but types?
Szalay lays the literary writing on a bit thick, reminding us every few pages his theme is light, overdoing it a bit on the adverbs, but despite all that he is good. He gives us the uncertainties of romance, the inability to break out of our narcissism and connect, in scenes as honest as Kundera (a writer he resembles not at all).
So many cigarettes are smoked, so many embraces shrugged off, so many fucks fucked, that one needs a long walk in the fall rain to feel a bit clean after finishing this.
Szalay lays the literary writing on a bit thick, reminding us every few pages his theme is light, overdoing it a bit on the adverbs, but despite all that he is good. He gives us the uncertainties of romance, the inability to break out of our narcissism and connect, in scenes as honest as Kundera (a writer he resembles not at all).
So many cigarettes are smoked, so many embraces shrugged off, so many fucks fucked, that one needs a long walk in the fall rain to feel a bit clean after finishing this.