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A review by katykelly
Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda
3.0
Darkly amusing story about religion, academia and family.
"Eight months before he became a suicide bomber, Prin went to the zoo with his family." Quite an opening line. Especially when we learn that Prin is a Catholic, devoted father and husband, and now trying to tell his children about his cancer diagnosis. Just how will this opening translate into the 'eight months later' promise?
It takes the entire novel to reach that point, by which time I'd almost forgotten. Caught up in Prin's world of his academic work into seahorses in Canadian literature, the threat of unemployment after his college faces possible closure, and the emotional struggles of meeting an ex-lover as part of the team looking to shut down his workplace. The 'suicide bomber' plotline seemed to vanish until the very end.
As I was listening, I did find it quite amusing, but I couldn't tell you now much detail about why. The ending did strike a chord and was well-played, however. And I would want to know how that plays out in the next book, but the rest of the book didn't particularly stand out for me. I liked the 'seahorse academia' theme, a few funny scenes relating to this.
The narrator (Audible version) was quite slow in his reading, I had to speed it up quite a lot to keep interest and flow going, and this didn't affect the clarity at all.
For me, the idea had promise but it was slow in getting to the point I was interested in. The final chapters did come to life, however.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample reading copy.
"Eight months before he became a suicide bomber, Prin went to the zoo with his family." Quite an opening line. Especially when we learn that Prin is a Catholic, devoted father and husband, and now trying to tell his children about his cancer diagnosis. Just how will this opening translate into the 'eight months later' promise?
It takes the entire novel to reach that point, by which time I'd almost forgotten. Caught up in Prin's world of his academic work into seahorses in Canadian literature, the threat of unemployment after his college faces possible closure, and the emotional struggles of meeting an ex-lover as part of the team looking to shut down his workplace. The 'suicide bomber' plotline seemed to vanish until the very end.
As I was listening, I did find it quite amusing, but I couldn't tell you now much detail about why. The ending did strike a chord and was well-played, however. And I would want to know how that plays out in the next book, but the rest of the book didn't particularly stand out for me. I liked the 'seahorse academia' theme, a few funny scenes relating to this.
The narrator (Audible version) was quite slow in his reading, I had to speed it up quite a lot to keep interest and flow going, and this didn't affect the clarity at all.
For me, the idea had promise but it was slow in getting to the point I was interested in. The final chapters did come to life, however.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample reading copy.