Because of my backlog of reviews and other posts I want to write, today I'm publishing two book reviews in one post (also because neither book, in my opinion, really "needs" its own post).
Elias J. Connor
This was one of those books I kept reading in spite of not really enjoying it – I was hoping the story would pick up, and the main character would grow on me.
Neither happened, although the story as such held enough potential.
We meet Janie when she’s 12 years old, a shy but not unhappy girl who loves to watch the stars at night.
She thinks a lot about her place as a tiny human being in the vastness of the universe, and writes about her thoughts and dreams in her diary.
After the breakdown of her parents’ marriage and her Dad moving away, Janie becomes more and more withdrawn.
She doesn’t get along with her mother, and a first tender romantic interest with a boy at school who seems to understand her ends in tears.
University follows, and once again Janie feels like the odd one out.
But it is there, with the help of fellow students and a handful of other people, that she finally asserts herself and even finds love.
Life looks really good for Janie now – until she receives very sad news…
I am not going to say more about the actual story, only that Janie goes through more ups and downs until the book ends with her peaceful death at old age.
The story itself is not bad, but the writing is repetitive, and continuity is not always maintained. For instance, as an adult all of a sudden without explanation Janie and her mother are very close and supportive of each other, when before they hardly spoke, and Janie lived away from home.
Also, editing wasn’t up to scratch – apart from the repetitiveness, there are several instances where Janie’s and her daughter’s name are muddled up, and her daughter suddenly is called her grandchild when she is actually Janie’s mother’s grandchild.
I am quite picky when it comes to such inaccuracies; small mistakes, but they could be so easily avoided.
Not a total waste of time but definitely not a must read, and I am glad that it was a free ebook and didn’t cost me more than the time I spent reading it on the train.
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| Not my picture, but the same edition |
Bernard Malamud
My book-swapping friend A. lent me this paperback, and no doubt she’ll want to know my opinion.
Well… it is hard to really explain my impression of this collection of short (and not so short) stories.
My overall verdict is that I can very well go on living without ever reading anything by Malamud again, while I don’t doubt his skill and talent as a writer at all.
It is simply that I could not engage with the stories, on no level.
Some of them are outright absurd or bizarre, but not in a funny way (at least not according to my sense of humour).
Others are simply sad, leaving me as a reader somewhat downcast while at the same time relieved that my life is nothing like what is depicted in the story.
I guess Malamud and I got off on the wrong foot when I started to read the first story and was appalled by his nasty description of a girl with Down syndrome.
The collection of stories was originally published in 1973, but some of the stories are older, from the 1950s and 60s.
Although Malamud as an author’s name was familiar to me from my years working at the library, I’d never read anything by him before now.
Maybe I am the one being nasty now, but I honestly can’t see what made him win the Pulitzer Prize – at least not based on these stories.
That is a very efficient way to tackle the backlog! Sometimes, a book just doesn't earn the space of its own post, especially if the experience of reading it felt like a chore. Hopefully, your next few reads are much more rewarding—or at the very least, better edited! Do you have a "palate cleanser" book lined up for number 26?
ReplyDeleteYes, I have! #26 I've already finished last week but have not yet gotten round to writing the review (backlog...); it's of the Agatha Raisin series I am so fond of. My current read is very good again, too.
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