Icarus
Well written, but - and this does feel weird to say - too tidy for me. Everything echoes at least once, but too soon and too often. I wonder if there's a rawness missing for me. A jaggedness. This story was too smooth that I was longing for more depth.
I saw another review say that this book felt like Backman was trying to get someone to highlight the whole book. That's not a bad way of putting it. He has great lines and insights, but for something this long, it's like the difference between eating a slice of cake after dinner and being forced to eat a whole cake in a single sitting. It's too much. And this amount of craft at length can only be done intentionally, which ends up coming off as disingenuous, strangely enough. I would have enjoyed this most if it had ended when we meet the artist.
Well written, but - and this does feel weird to say - too tidy for me. Everything echoes at least once, but too soon and too often. I wonder if there's a rawness missing for me. A jaggedness. This story was too smooth that I was longing for more depth.
I saw another review say that this book felt like Backman was trying to get someone to highlight the whole book. That's not a bad way of putting it. He has great lines and insights, but for something this long, it's like the difference between eating a slice of cake after dinner and being forced to eat a whole cake in a single sitting. It's too much. And this amount of craft at length can only be done intentionally, which ends up coming off as disingenuous, strangely enough. I would have enjoyed this most if it had ended when we meet the artist.