The Real McCoy, Strauss. No. Strauss shows every sign of being a skilled writer, and mechanically I have no complaints. Even the flirting with non-linear narrative was not overly distracting, though neither did it serve any discernible purpose—except, perhaps, to mask how little story there was. Skill notwithstanding, the world Strauss presents is filled with […]
Faithful Place, French. Yes. Before I was 15 pages in, I was certain this book would break my heart. I continue to enjoy French’s writing, and am especially happy that the Irish idioms have not been cut out for American consumption (or at least not as far as I can tell). Dialogue, characterization, plot, all […]
A description of world famous kitty Maru’s paw pose as being like a Japanese ghost made me check on Japanese ghost posture. Sure enough, they have a T-Rex arm thing going on.
Iorich, Brust. Yes. I won’t call this a return to form, since I don’t believe Brust ever lost his form. Iorich does, though, represent a number of returns for the Taltos books, and by and large they work for me.
Lifelode, Walton. Yes. My only previous exposure to Walton was the straight-up alternative history of the Small Change series, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Lifelode is set in a very different world, though the characters are completely recognizable and resonant in their humanity. The non-linear narrative could easily have distracted, had it not been […]
Being Wrong, Schulz. Non-fiction. This was a book club obligation, and it is perhaps the most interesting book club obligation I have so far incurred. It is not, though, an optimistic-making book, as the bottom line that I get from it is that we can’t trust our brains to make decisions based on evidence. I’ve […]
Lottery, Wood. Yes. This book has some superficial similarities to Marcelo in the Real World—though Lottery is not categorized as a YA novel—and I feel about it much as I do about MitRW: I won’t read it again, and I didn’t love it, but the story was not without charm, and the writing was competent. […]
I Am Not Sidney Poitier, Everett. Yes. As with Erasure, this was more a book I should have read with a book club than on my own. This time I was more distracted by the “brilliant satirical skewering” (as PW put it), and by what struck me as experimental aspects. Ultimately, I think the book […]
Marcelo in the Real World, Stork. Yes. I did not love this book, but neither would I choose not to have read it. It was a bit of a slog, and I had a hard time sympathizing with any of the characters, but the story was relatively engaging, and I don’t recall any glaring mechanical […]