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11
Apr

#Dublin Award shortlist 2019 Kamila Shamsie

  • Author: Kamila Shamsie
  • Title: Home Fire
  • Published: 2017
  • #DublinLiteraryAward2019
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly plan
  • PREDICTION:  this book is MY choice for Dublin Literary Award 2019!

 

Awards:
  1. Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2017)
  2. Costa Book Award Nominee for Novel (2017)
  3. Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Nominee for International Book (2018)
  4. Women’s Prize for Fiction (2018)
  5. Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2017)

 

Shortlist: 4/10 ( not wasting my time on 6 selected books, sorry)

UPDATE:

  • Reservoir 13 – J. McGregor – READ – (…review Lisa)
  • Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie – READ (immigrants…review Brona)
  • Exit West – M. Hamid – NOT reading (review Lisa, Brona) (..enough of Middle-Eastern city)
  • Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders – READ (review Brona)
  • Midwinter Break –  Bernard MacLaverty– READ  (review Brona)
  • Compass –  M. Énard – NOT reading – Prix Goncourt 2015  (review Reese)
  • Idaho –  Emily Ruskovich – NOT reading (family epic, rugged Idaho)
  • A Boy in Winter –  Rachel Seiffert – NOT reading  (WWII, review Lisa)
  • History of Wolves –  Emily Fridlund – NOT reading – (review Lisa)
  • Conversations With Friends – S. Rooney  NOT reading (…had enough of Rooney)

 

MY SHORTLIST  …books I think should have been shortlisted 0/6

  • Brother –  David Chariandy –  (Powerful, bold and timely, Canadian)
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine –  G. Honeyman –  (review Reese)
  • The Hate U Give –  A. Thomas –  (..must read this, NYT Bestseller YA novel))
  • Tin Man –  Sarah Winman –  (review Lisa)

 

Quickscan:

  1. Home Fire is a contemporary
  2. re-imagining of the Greek tragedy Antigone
  3. …in 5 acts…locations.
  4. Setting: The novel is set in five locations:
  5. London; Amherst, Massachusetts,
  6. Istanbul,  Raqqa, Syria and Karachi, Pakistan
  7. Structure: The book is divided into 5 parts.
  8. Characters: In each part one character
  9. Isma – elder sister, raised twins when their mother died
  10. Eamonn – son Home Secretary, lover Aneeka
  11. Parvaiz – twin, jihadi
  12. Aneeka – twin,  law student
  13. Karamat Lone  – Home Secretary
  14. speaks to the  reader
  15. …we are the chorus in a  Greek play!
  16. Theme: The theme is resistance.
  17. Aneeka refuses to obey the law
  18. Aneeka defies British Home Secretary Karamat Lone
  19. …who stated that a jihadi may not return to UK …dead or alive.
  20. Climax: Aneeka keeps vigil by her brother’s coffin in public park – protest!
  21. Symbol: soil
  22. With a dust mask on her face, dark hair a cascade of mud
  23. onlookers hear a deep howl…a howl Aneeka
  24. calls up from the earth through her into the office of the Home Secretary
  25. …watching on the TV
  26. She scrapes some dirt with her fingernails
  27. to properly bury her brother.
  28. Aneeka choose her dignity and
  29. …that of her brother above her happiness.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. The novel tries to stay close to the original plot of Antigone.
  2. Shamsie has been able to include the
  3. theme of civil disobedience
  4. into a modern setting with
  5. …explosive political (jihad, ISIS) undertones.
  6. The book has been reviewed by
  7. …so many readers it is impossible
  8. to add more praise than it has accrued.
  9. Strong point: IMO  Act 3 Parvaiz was the most impressive.
  10. Shamsie revealed why how Parvaiz was groomed to
  11. leave his home to answer the call of Jihad.
  12. Two years after publication
  13. …this book is still very confronting.
  14. The so-called caliphate of Islamic State, also known as Isis,
  15. in Iraq and Syria is defeated but remains a threat.
  16. Countries must engage in a delicate balancing act between
  17. legal obligations and political correctness.
  18. Strong point: thought provoking
  19. …I had to think long and hard….
  20. how families must feel
  21. losing their children to the Islamic state.
  22. #Devastated

 

10
Apr

#Dublin Award shortlist 2019 Jon McGregor

 

Shortlist: 3/10 ( not wasting my time on 6 selected books, sorry)

MY SHORTLIST …books I think should have been shortlisted 0/6

 

UPDATE:

WINNER !!

  • Idaho by Emily Ruskovich –  SHORTLIST (family epic, rugged Idaho)
  • American author Emily Ruskovich has won the prestigious 2019 International Dublin Literary Award for her debut novel Idaho.
  • The €100,000 prize is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English and Emily is the fourth American author to win the prize in 24 years.

 

  • A Boy in Winter –  Rachel Seiffert – NOT reading  (WWII, review Lisa)
  • History of Wolves –  Emily Fridlund – NOT reading – SHORTLIST (review Lisa)
  • Conversations With Friends – S. Rooney  NOT reading –  (…had enough of Rooney)

 

MY SHORTLIST  …books I think should have been shortlisted

  • Pachinko –  Jin Min Lee – (500 pg saga, review  Sue and Brona)
  • Brother –  David Chariandy –  (Powerful, bold and timely, Canadian)
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine –  G. Honeyman –  (review Reese)
  • The Hate U Give –  A. Thomas –  (..must read this, NYT Bestseller YA novel))
  • Tin Man –  Sarah Winman –  (review Lisa)
  • Taboo – Kim Scott (Indigenous Australian) –  (review Lisa and Brona)

 

Conclusion:

  1. Timeline: 10 years.
  2. Ch 1 : A young girl goes missing on a walk.
  3. The parents and villagers are in shock.
  4. Now in just about every chapter McGregor tells us
  5. what  the foxes,  sheep
  6. …swallows, badgers, pheasants, magpies
  7. woodpigeons, a whippet and Mr. Wilson’s dog are doing!
  8. We listen to village gossip,
  9. …spy on teenagers kissing in the  fields.
  10. We celebrate with the characters just about
  11. every holiday imaginable:
  12. Harvest festivals, Xmas pageants, May Day
  13. …Ash Wednesday, Valentine’s Day
  14. and New Years Eve when the fireworks go off.
  15. In the background we are told the
  16. …reservoirs are silver-metallic grey
  17. …rising higher, flooding, the water resides lower,
  18. …rise again and are whipped into whitecaps.
  19. This goes on and on for another 12 chapters.
  20. …but still not real investigation about the missing girl.
  21. This story is a circle going round and round
  22. …what’s the point?
  23. First chapter was the hook.
  24. Short sentences keeping the pace and plot moving.
  25. Then…BAM!
  26. I ended up in a 12 chapter nature walk
  27. …through a quintessential English village!
  28. Huh?
  29. Where is the suspense of a missing teenage girl in the quarries?
  30. Winner of the Costa Novel Award
  31. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
  32. Named a Best Book of the Year by
  33. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kirkus, and Los Angeles Review.
  34. WTF?
  35. Life’s too short to read long winding books like these.
  36. Clearly winning prizes does not guarantee a good book.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Initially I thought I found a
  2. …strong point in the first few chapters.
  3. McGregor’s writing style reminded me of episodes
  4. of BBC Broadchurch detective series!
  5. Not a narrative  filled with junk science CSI
  6. but the human side of a story based on
  7. the tragedy of a missing girl and
  8. …how it bleeds into the lives of the villagers.
  9. But the hemorrhaging….just kept on going
  10. …until there was no more life in the story!
  11. Needless to say after 7 chapters of this senseless talk
  12. I skimmed the rest of the book.
  13. How could Reservoir 13 be
  14. …shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize?
  15. Where’s the literature in this book?
  16.  I’ve seen recipes for boiled eggs that were more exciting!
  17. #HugeDisappointment

 

9
Apr

#Prix Fémina 2018 Phillipe Lançon

 

Quickscan:

  1. January 7  2015  during a editorial meeting at  Charlie Hebdo
  2. terrorists entered the room and killed 12 people and injuring 11.
  3. Phillipe Lançon, journalist, was shot in the face left in critical condition.
  4. Lançon reveals that he did not write the book in order to surivive.
  5. He wrote it years later when he felt his life was settled.
  6. The surgeon adviced him to  ‘revenir à la normale’
  7. ….but that is easier said than done.
  8. The title says it all: Le Lambeau
  9. “All that is left of me is shreds”

 

Conclusion:

  1. 30% of the book is a description of the days before the attack
  2. …the attack itself and how his brother took charge and
  3. helped him pick up the pieces.
  4. 30 % is about the long and painful
  5. reconstruction of his face.
  6. 40% is about Lançon’s physical and mental decline
  7. …balanced between healing and hope.
  8. The first 8 chapters are gripping.
  9. It is surreal to read the dream like quality of if
  10. Lançon’s first impressions after the attack as he
  11. …lay in a swamp of blood.
  12. The text is so emotional.
  13. The second half of the book concentrates on
  14. the reconstruction of the author’s jaw
  15. …and the close connection he feels for his surgeon Cholé.
  16. An important part of the book is Lançon’s  style of
  17. interlacing his life after the attack with literature.
  18. He often refers to Proust, Kafka and Shakespeare
  19. …and several books that are important for him.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This book reminded me of
  2. …Dante’s journey into the inferno:
  3. “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
  4. I wouldn’t say a hospital is comparable to Hell
  5. …but no one likes going there.
  6. The book is draining because you follow
  7. the author in a labryinth of his PTSS mind.
  8. There is a mixture of facts, hallucinations and dreams.
  9. He sees his parents suffer
  10. …but he does not suffer.
  11. He is the suffering.
  12. …very existential at times.
  13. Because Lançon  shares so much with the reader
  14. ..the book is long.
  15. You have to persevere to finish it.
  16. The epilogue….was confronting.
  17. The Bataclan attack occured only 10 months
  18. …after Charlie Hebdo on 13 November 2015
  19. This event shook Lançon to the core.
  20. #IntenseReadingExperience

 

Phillipe Lançon.…after the trauma of the attack and jaw recontruction.

8
Apr

#AWW 2019: Robin Dalton

 

Introduction:

  1. Aunts up the Cross is about Daltons’s childhood with her
  2. …eccentric extended family in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
  3. Her father was an open-all-hours doctor, known affectionately as “the gun doc”.
  4. Dr Eakin,  Mrs. Eakin,  Nana….and the close relationship the author had
  5. …with Aunt Bertie and  Aunt Juliet.
  6. Robin Dalton  is now 99…and still going strong!
  7. I loved this quote I found…
  8. Being old is not a problem, and the future not really a consideration:
  9. “I haven’t got a future, I’m practically tottering off the edge …”

 

Conclusion:

  1. I haven’t laughed so much about a book in years!
  2. This is an absolute gem!
  3. Tears of laughter while reading the theatrics the Eakin’s supper table.
  4. Tony ‘the bookmaker’ McGill is seated next to Mrs. Eakin’s aged governess Sally.
  5. Suddenly Tony unabashedly makes Sally ‘an offer she can’t refuse’! (…read the book!)
  6. Robin Dalton’s father was a tease
  7. .….and the book if filled with his practical jokes!
  8. But nothing, no nothing can compare to
  9. …the laughter I enjoyed while reading
  10. ..how Mrs. Eakin killed the plumber and
  11. ..the best joke about a fish  I have heard in YEARS!
  12. All can be found in …chapter 3…and much more!
  13. No spoilers….just a enthusiastic recommendation
  14. Aunts Up the Cross!
  15. Light, funny memoir…perfect book
  16. to lazily sit in the garden with a G&T…and laugh!
  17. You can read it in a few hours, just 142 pages!
  18. #Hysterical!
6
Apr

#Dublin Literary Award 2019 Peter Terrin (Belgian)

  • Author: Peter Terrin
  • Genre: Novella 
  • Language:  Dutch (read it in my second language!)
  • Published: 2014
  • Table of Contents: 165 pages
  • Setting: Monte Carlo, Monaco, Alstead, England
  • Timeline: May 1968 – July 1969 – some flashbacks to Jack’s youth.
  • Theme: misplaced heroism
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly plan

 

Quickscan:

  1. 1968 race in Monte Carlo is a
  2. …turning point Jack Preston’s life.
  3. He  saves the life of actress Deedee from an horrific explosion.
  4. Jack  is scarred for life.
  5. At home he waits for a sign of gratitude from Deedee.
  6. The press announces that Deedee’s bodyguard saved her.
  7. Jack ends up being ‘nobody’s’ hero.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Peter Terrin tries to make a statement
  2. …by writing too poetically.
  3. It feels forced, belabored.
  4. There are difficult words, choppy sentences
  5. ….that did not ‘grab my interest’.
  6. After reading the first page the book felt like work and not pleasure!
  7. For example: sentences with
  8. …79-89-68-131-111-101-79-110 words  in one sentence!!
  9. OMG…what is Peter Terrin trying to prove?
  10. I want the writer to lead me through the story,
  11. nudge me in the right direction, pluck a heart string.
  12. Terrin manages to drag me along with the windy orations
  13. …that bore me to death!
  14. I just lost all interest.
  15. Part 2 and 3 could not save this book.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. S. Hertmans War and Turpentine.
  2. This is a wonderful examples of great writing by Dutch/Belgian writer.
  3. Why didn’t Dublin Literary Award longlist Hertmans?
  4. I can barely crawl through 165 pages of Monte Carlo by Peter Terrin.
  5. I keep asking myself: “Am I so hard to please?”
  6. This book was like watching the old lady
  7. …in front of you pay for her groceries
  8. …one nickel at a time…so excruciating.
  9. There is NO way this book will be shortlisted for
  10. Dublin Literary Award 2019.
  11. If it DOES…get shortlisted…” I’ll eat my hat!”
  12. Update:  It did not make the shortlist on 04 April 2019!
  13. So I still have my hat!
  1. NOTE:  there is a reason I don’t read many
  2. …Dutch/Belgian  authors
  3. …books are boring
  4. …and it is the same group of writers
  5. …that keep getting nominated over and over!
  6. Example:
  7. Arnon Grunberg, Esther Gerritzen, Connie Palmen
  8. Ilja Pfeiffer, Tommy Wierenga.
  9. More interesting are the multicultural voices that have emerged!
  10. Murat Isik, Ozcan Akyol and Alfred Birney (Indonesian)

 

Peter Terrin

 

5
Apr

#Stella Prize 2019 shortlist Jamie M. Lau

  1. Well, this ends my reading shortlist #StellaPrize 2019.
  2. I’ve done my best!
  3. Unfortunately I cannot purchase
  4. Little Gods or The Erratics in The Netherlands.
  5. You can read my review os Axiomatic on Goodreads.

 

Shortlisted books: 4/6  

 

Quickscan:

  1. The novel centers around Monk (15 yr girl)
  2. Monk lives in Chinatown with her failed-artist-father
  3. She introduces her new found
  4. …friend the mysterious Santa Coy to her dad.
  5. Her father adopts Santa Coy as his artistic disciple.
  6. The chapters are fragmented
  7. …and reveal situations Monk observes.
  8. These vivid and intense vignettes move from
  9. Chinatown, casinos, music, tv-static, love, hunger and violence.
  10. Title:  chapter ‘Everybody’s Dying in the Summer””
  11. …pink rock that two amateur pushers gave you isn’t a mountain,
  12. …it’s a crater.”

 

Strong point:  poetic technique

  1. Style: poetic
  2. Clear, concise, and uncluttered style
  3. … and with a confident voice.
  4. Lau uses bullet points, snippets of a letter,
  5. shopping lists, menus, chats and repetitions.
  6. She gives us an objective description of her world,
  7. clear straightforward words
  8. …ending with a simple statements of feeling.

 

Strong point:  dialogue

  1. Dialogue:  without quotation marks
  2. I noticed  how “clean” the text  looks without quotes
  3. and is somehow more immediate.
  4. Cormac McCarthy once said:
  5. “…the intent of dialogue without quotations
  6. ….is to make the reading easier, not harder.
  7. If you write properly you shouldn’t have to punctuate.”

 

Strong point:  this book introduced me to new music!

  1. I listened to
  2. Japanese Jazz Fusion
  3. Pianist Hiromi Uehara (1979)  LISTEN
  4. Her joy is infectious! She certainly got rhythm!
  5. You won’t believe your ears!
  6. Blues with a Latin beat
  7. Pianist Horace Silver (1928-2014) American jazz pianist LISTEN
  8. Silver’s break came in 1950, when his trio backed saxophonist Stan Getz.

 

Strong point:  urban vocabulary

  1. Some expressions  absolutely stumped me!
  2. “Sitting like Ls, our backs against the bed…”  = sitting like losers? lost souls??
  3. Have you ever watched a
  4. …video of digitized acid trip on internet?
  5. I have…after reading this book! Eye-opener!
  6. Unplug: forgetting one’s problems in a Gen Z  digitized world
  7. ” I pack my computer, my xanax.”

 

Strong point:  captures a precise moment of thought.

  1. Lau writes some profound closing sentences:
  2. Ch  “Aunty Linda”:
  3. She says: “Would you look away if somebody was
  4. forcing you to look at their emotions?
  5. He says: I’m here now aren’t I?”
  6. Ch “Home Run Ballad”:
  7. “I try praying for Sadie….
  8. I ask Aunt Linda how you know it’s working.
  9. She tells me that nobody knows…
  10. ..and that’s the best part.”

 

Conclusion:

  1. Do you want to meet tomorrow’s literary star today?
  2. Read  this bold and adventurous work
  3. …by Jamie Marina Lau!
  4. This book falls under the Gen Z label.
  5. Monk’s character is a
  6. reflection of a crazy access to visual information.
  7. Monk’s age perspective is 15 yr.
  8. She  is not defining herself by what she knows.
  9. She’s just observing.
  10. Gen Z’ers reading and writing
  11. …talents  are being transformed
  12. …due to their familiarity with
  13. …digital devices, platforms and texts.
  14. Pink Mountain on Locust Island reflects
  15. ..this transformation by it’s experimental form!
  16. If you put the ‘out-there’, wierd, brash, disjointed aside
  17. and read the book to find a few gems of real thought
  18. then you have done justice to this new rising literary
  19. star of the Gen Z generation.
  20. It is not conventional….it may not appeal to everyone
  21. ….but Jamie Marina Lau impressed this Baby Boomer!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Perhaps people of Gen Z
  2. will find the book more appealing than others.
  3. Gen Z’ers  are being taught to consume information
  4. …in the way Jamie Marina Lau describes it in her book.
  5. I had no idea how to approach the book.
  6. Before reading ….I researched  all 106 chapter titles!
  7. Some of the titles made sense after reading the book
  8. …most did not!
  9. There are many allusions to food, music and the bible!
  10. Can it win the Stella Prize?
  11.  Is it too experimental?
  12. I wonder what #Stella will decide!

4
Apr

#Dublin Literary Award shortlist 2019

Shortlisted books: 3/10

WINNER !!

  • Idaho by Emily Ruskovich –  SHORTLIST (family epic, rugged Idaho)
  • American author Emily Ruskovich has won the prestigious 2019 International Dublin Literary Award for her debut novel Idaho.
  • The €100,000 prize is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English and Emily is the fourth American author to win the prize in 24 years.

 

 

SHORTLIST  2019

Shortlist:   3/10 ( not wasting my time on 5 selected books, sorry)

 

 

UPDATE:

 

MY SHORTLIST  …books I think should have been shortlisted

  • Brother by David Chariandy –  (Powerful, bold and timely, Canadian)
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by G. Honeyman – (review Reese)
  • The Hate U Give by A. Thomas –  (..must read this, NYT Bestseller YA novel))
  • Tin Man by Sarah Winman – (review Lisa)

 

UPDATE: 04.04.2019

Dutch/Belgian longlist….that I will read:

  1. Monte Carlo – Peter Terrin (Belgian) – READ
  2. The Consequences – Nina Weijers (Dutch) –READ (…review soon)
  3. Tench – Inge Schilperoord (Dutch)…about paedophile…not reading it!
2
Apr

#Stella Prize 2019 shortlist Melissa Lucashenko

Shortlisted books: 2/6  

 

 

Quickscan:

  1. Kerry Salter returns to her hometown of Durrongo
  2. …to bid farewell to her dying grandfather.
  3. She becomes embroiled in
  4. …the dramas of her dysfunctional family.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book was  difficult to enter…
  2. ..narrative and  the characters.
  3.  The family relations were hard to sort out because there are so
  4. …many people to keep track of!
  5. Great-grandparents (‘Chinky’ Joe, Gran Ava)
  6. Grandparents (Pop Joe, Granny Ruth)
  7. Mother-father (Pretty Mary and Charlie)
  8. Brothers-sisters   “Koala” Ken, Donna, “Black Superman”, Kerry
  9. Aunts, uncles, nephews and cousins…

 

Weak point: Book is not filled with richly crafted sentences.

 

Strong point:

  1. An emotional mood/tone  cannot be measured
  2. …but it can be spoken!
  3. The writer uses a specific choice of words
  4. slang (“truesgod!”)
  5. local phrases, (Norco butter, plate of hammer and onion)
  6. misspellings ( wanna,  granny is ‘ere ta help’)
  7. profane expressions
  8. …that you can imagine are in all the chapters!
  9. These word choices express the lifestyle, viewpoint and
  10. dysfunctionality of the Satler Aboriginal family.

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. Amid all the bizarre images, voices and actions
  2. in this book with some very complex characters
  3. we see passion, love and forgiveness in the Satler family.
  4. Language is the culture. (Aboriginal)
  5. If you lose your language you’ve lost your culture.
  6. Lucashenko manages to find a balance
  7. between emotions and language
  8. …that really impressed me!

 

1
Apr

#Stella Prize 2019 shortlist Enza Gandolfo

 

  • Well, here is my next shortlist: Stella Prize 2019
  • I won’t have much time to read them all because
  • the prize will be announced on 09 April 2019.
  • But I will give it ‘the old college try’
  • …is it only to make an informed decision
  • …as to which book I THINK should win!

 

Shortlisted books: 1/6   

 

Quickscan:

  1. Backdrop: On October 15, 1970, while it was under construction
  2. …the West Gate Bridge collapsed, killing 35 workers.
  3. It was Victoria’s worst ever workplace accident.
  4. Main plot is driven by Jo Nielson (19 yr)
  5. She is racked with guilt after the car she drove
  6. crashed against the basr of the bridge.
  7. Her BFF Ashleigh was killed.
  8. Subplot: Nello (bridge rigger) Ash’s grandfather
  9. …is suffering PTSS
  10. He survived the bridge collpase and his friends died.
  11. Now he is haunted…the bridge takes another victim.
  12. Nello’s  world and Jo’s world
  13. …come crashing down on them.

 

Timeline:

  1. 1970 – Ch 1-3  Dramatic description of bridge collapse.
  2. 39 yrs later…
  3. 2009  – Ch 4-23  Friendship Jo and Ashleigh, car accident, funeral, Jo’s depression
  4. 2010  – Ch 24-30  Jo’s day in court.

Conclusion:

 

Weak point:  too many  narratives to follow

  1. This weakens the drive of the story.
  2. I felt the novel never came alive
  3. …it just dragged on and on.
  4. The large cast of characters
  5. ..gives the book that TV soap opera feel.
  6. I don’t mean that as a criticism.
  7. But there is just too much in a book of 384 pages!
  8. It is a maze of…
  9. teenagers – parents, teachers,
  10. grandparents, great-grandparents,
  11. lawyer – lawyer’s best friend Ada
  12. …in-laws , ex-husbands
  13. old friends who worked on the bridge,
  14. …their wives, children or miscarriages!
  15. A series of connected stories
  16. …that revolve around the collapsed bridge.
  17. The death of Ashleigh (major character) feels like
  18. ..another one of the stories going on, rather than the main plot.

 

Weak point: too much backstory:

  1. We all want to know about a character’s past.
  2. Gandolfo should decide whose story she’s telling.
  3. You can’t tell everything.
  4. I’m overwhelmed byall the flashbacks
  5. dream sequences and the
  6. …memories that keep surging and spilling
  7. every time Jo (main character) touches the fabric of a dress,
  8. …hears a song
  9. or opens a pink ballerina journal.

 

Weak point:  book needs editing!

  1. The author is often the one least able to see what need to be removed!
  2. Ask a reader!  Ask an editor!
  3. Gandolfo needs someone to tell her
  4. …which scenes are unnecessary or should be shortened.
  5. Here are a few things that I noticed:
  6. Bridge collapse:
  7. I did not need…
  8. technical specifics about the bridge.
  9. Ch 1-3
  10. felt like Wikipedia with some dialogue,
  11. moaning of iron girders, crashing slabs of concrete
  12. ..bolts snapping and explosions.
  13. This information could have been concise
  14. …and compact in one short exposition chapter.
  15. Sarah the lawyer:
  16. I did not need…
  17. to know her weight problems and
  18. the haunting death of her BFF Ada (jumped from the bridge).
  19. I think the lawyer’s backstory was ‘filling’ to evoke emotions.
  20. Ch 17 Funeral
  21. I did not need…
  22. to know every detail of funeral service
  23. …..who attended, style of  the mourning clothes on family members,
  24. the color of coffin and flowers and
  25. rosary beads wound around gandmother’s fingers.
  26. I think this could have been written in a few sentences
  27. Establish somber mood with a description of the weather. (rain?)
  28. Remember the service while riding home from church.
  29. Cherish the tearful hug given by parents or friends. Done!

 

Weak point:  dialogue.

  1. Feels static, heavy and does not  shines off the page.

 

Weak point:  Gandolfo is killing her novel with details!

  1. Pages of details that slow the pace and aren’t interesting or relevant.
  2. Example ch 15 – Ash’s journal is found and Jo places in Grandpa’s safe.
  3. Wonderful!
  4. But don’t go on to tell me the history of the safe
  5. …that is was a bargain and
  6. …grandma’s precious pearls that are kept there.
  7. I don’t care!
  8. Often what you don’t say is just as important as what you do.
  9. Few things will turn readers off
  10. ..quicker than pages of trivia!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Unfortunately I could not find any strong points
  2. …about this book.  Believe me, I tried.
  3. It is  impossible to grasp fully that this book
  4. would be considered for the Stella Prize.
  5. Where is the jury’s report?
  6. I’d like to read it!
  7. Did you read this book?
  8. #HonestOpinion

 

 

31
Mar

#Shortlist Kerry Group Irish Novel of 2019

 

Experiment  is a success!

  1. This is the first time I have committed to a shortlist
  2. …and finished it!
  3. I needed a kick-start to keep up my reading momentum
  4. …after 3 weeks #ReadingIreland19
  5. I find that seeing the image of the books on every review
  6. keeps me focused to write a few thoughts and move
  7. on to the next book as soon as possible.
  8. Yesterday I read the last book.
  9. Kerry Group Best Irish Novel 2019
  10. …announcement on 29 May 2019.
  11. Travelling In A Strange Land – D. Park – READ #ReadingIrelandMonth19
  12. A Ladder To The Sky – John Boyne – READ #ReadingIrelandMonth19
  13. The Cruelty Men – Emer Martin – READ #ReadingIrelandMonth19
  14. Normal People – Sally Rooney – READING #ReadingIrelandMonth19

 

Shortlisted books:  read 5/5

Quickscan:

  1. Care worker Maud Drennan is assigned a  difficult client
  2. Cathal Flood…he is a hoarder.
  3. Maud finds herself knee-deep in hoarded junk and intrigue.
  4. What exactly happened to Flood’s wife years before?
  5. Why is Maud haunted by practically every saint
  6. …dishing out some fairly useless advice!

 

Conclusion:

  1. It’s part Gothic murder mystery, part ghost story.
  2. Strong point: humor
  3. I loved the character of Renata (Maud’s partner in crime).
  4. Saints, Dynphna, Valentine  Rita, George, Monica, Raphael  are cleverly
  5. mixed into the narrative with their quirks and sanctity.
  6. Cats that lounge around Mr Flood’s home
  7. …are all named after  writers:
  8. Hemingway – rousing meow with half an ear
  9. Beckett – sightly bored, flicks question marks with his tail
  10. Dame Cartland – sociable Perian with matted rear-end
  11. Burroughs – dour, sneaky, hisses suspiciously in corners
  12. Strong point:  figurative language
  13. Kidd uses many references to maggots, toads trapdoor spiders
  14. cobwebs, earwigs to give the story an ultimate ‘jick-factor’
  15. The Gothic house we read…
  16. “the overgrown steps…ivy peels back from the doorframe sucker by sucker”
  17. Strong point:  similes….compares 2 different items
  18. the room “….like being inside a wedding cake…
  19. …froths of white and gold voile and sofas, plump crescents
  20. …of white leather.”
  21. Emotion:  This is the STRONGEST point of The Hoarder
  22. Kidd makes her characters people that you care about.
  23. Renata, landlady  who emerges each day as Maud walks by her door
  24. “…like a New Age Butterfly from her ground-floor cocoon”
  25. Renata is a life guide for Maud.
  26. She oozes charm in an eccentric way!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. If you are looking for an engaging, light read
  2. that is riotously funny...this is your book!
  3. I’m looking forward to reading more books
  4. by  Jess Kidd!

 

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