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A review by twicomb
Harold by Steven Wright
2.0
DNF at 58%. This could have been brilliant as a short story, and bearable as a novella. Trying to keep this shtick going for the length of a full book becomes an exercise in tedium and self-aggrandizement. We get it, you say (think) weird things.
Listen, I was really unhappy that I didn’t love this, because I love Wright’s comedy. But I t’s just too much of a muchness. Or maybe it’s somehow too similar to what being inside my own head is like. That’s a distinct possibility, and I don’t mean that in a good way. It just became wearisome in an all-too-familiar sort of way.
P.S. warning: if it aggravates you when people write distances or measurements in novels with number symbols, do not pick up this book. It’s filled with gems like: “He heard the sound of the waves crashing 100' below” and “He walked out over to the 4' high railing.” Just….no. Write “a hundred feet” or “four feet” and be done with it.
Listen, I was really unhappy that I didn’t love this, because I love Wright’s comedy. But I t’s just too much of a muchness. Or maybe it’s somehow too similar to what being inside my own head is like. That’s a distinct possibility, and I don’t mean that in a good way. It just became wearisome in an all-too-familiar sort of way.
P.S. warning: if it aggravates you when people write distances or measurements in novels with number symbols, do not pick up this book. It’s filled with gems like: “He heard the sound of the waves crashing 100' below” and “He walked out over to the 4' high railing.” Just….no. Write “a hundred feet” or “four feet” and be done with it.