Been a very busy week, with the holiday and the kids home and family visiting, so while I did manage to do a fair amount of running, baking, and the other stuff, it was kind of light on the reading. I did finish two and start two, so here we go.
I finished People Who Knew Me over the weekend. This was kind of a disappointment for me. Even though I loved the premise, woman using 9/11 as a chance to fake her death and start over, it was also what ultimately wrecked it. Things in her pre-9/11 life weren’t bad enough to justify what she did, and therefore it was really a terrible thing to do, which she just seemed too nonchalant about. I couldn’t forgive this character but I also couldn’t hate her, just didn’t have strong enough feelings either way. Really interesting debut though.
Next, a friend lent me Perv- A Love Story. Wow! This was a real gem. A lot of really disturbed stuff happens here but I still feel like it was mostly hilarious. I have to do some digging into Jerry Stahl’s work; his writing just killed me. His dialogue is so funny and I love his little details. (An old guy pronouncing deaf “deef” is a direct line to my funny bone, for whatever reason.) There’s a minor character named Dolores who is probably one of my favorite fictional people ever and it was delightful to see her pop back up in the epilogue. Awesome book, not for everyone but when a coming of age story is called Perv you kind of know what you’re getting into.
After Perv, I started Before the Fall and I’m only a little ways in but I can tell I’m going to be on the fence about it. The story is good but I already hate the main character and I’m feeling a weird streak of misogyny throughout. So far every female character is presented with some level of disdain and appears completely hapless. It’s pretty annoying. I know this writer has done some television work and I’m definitely going to look into his female characters on the screen when I have a chance. Anyway, the writing is decent enough and the story is fine, maybe things will pick up.
I needed a break from the annoying man stuff in that book so I also started Something Borrowed. It’s like I just need a hit of estrogen to balance out the testosterone of Before the Fall. I haven’t read a lot of Emily Giffin but I think she does pretty solid women’s fiction. I’m only a little ways in and it really gets going quickly. Hoping to end the year with a good one. I will of course keep you posted. Peace out, 2016!
