Natasha
This is a silly book. I understand it is meant to be a satire on sex, the role of women in society and consumerism, but really, there is only so far Palahniuk can push the envelope.
The thing is that this book is pretty well written (I finished it after all), but the plot became so ridiculous and far-fetched that I found myself rolling my eyes on every second page.
A brief synopsis: Penny Harrigan is an everywoman. No supermodel good looks, no high flying career, she is simply average (and I like that). She is astounded when the world's richest man (Maxwell) begins to court her, and their relationship quickly turns to one of mind-blowing sex and pleasure. Maxwell is in the sex toys business, a brand called Beautiful You, and tests all his prototypes on Penny. But there is something sinister about his motives, and when the products eventually hit the market, it has devastating consequences for the world as we know it.
This is my first Chuck Palahniuk novel, and even though I did not exactly enjoy Beautiful You, I still want to read his other works (Fight Club and Invisible Monsters.) He is a gifted writer and, for the most part, I enjoyed the first half of the novel. It begins as a Fifty Shades of Grey parody and is quite funny. But then it quickly spirals into absurdity and nonsense and becomes increasingly degrading to women.
If a fifteen-year-old, sexed crazed, sci-fi loving boy wrote a novel – this would be that novel.
I am a very emotional TV and movie viewer. If there is an advert about babies or love or puppies I am easily a goner – tears streaming down my face. This trait does not usually carry through to novels though. Yes, I am emotionally involved with the characters and their ups and downs, but it takes very special writing to reduce me to tears. I cried while reading Still Alice by Lisa Genova.
Alice Howland is a very successful and respected professor of psychology and linguistics at Harvard University. She leads a full and happy life with her scientist husband and three grown up children. But Alice is beginning to notice worrying changes. She forgets words, becomes disorientated in her own town and forgets about scheduled meetings and conferences. When she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease her perfect world rapidly and irreversibly alters.
I couldn't put this book down. Although it dealt with an awful and inevitable disease, it read like a thriller. Lisa Genova drew me into the Howland family, I felt as though I was on the journey with Alice. When she went for her memory test, I tested my own memory; when her thoughts further declined, I felt her despair; and in her moments of triumph, I felt emotional (teary) joy!
I could also see how difficult it was for Alice's family (especially her husband) to watch her rapid decline. I empathise with anyone going through this, or who has a loved one with this disease.
The movie, starring Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart, will be released later this year. I have no doubt that I will be bawling like a baby throughout the 100 minutes.
This is a truly beautiful and life-affirming story. Read it.
3.5 stars.
If you read The Rosie Project, odds are you fell in love with Don and Rosie. This mismatched and unlikely couple made me laugh and warmed the cockles of my heart. So I was extremely excited to get an ARC of Graeme Simsion's latest instalment – The Rosie Effect.
Don and Rosie are newlyweds living in the Big Apple (that's New York if for some bizzaro reason you think this has turned in to some science fiction alternative reality thing). They seem to be happy and settling into life in America, until Rosie drops a bombshell that turns Don's safe, predictable world upside down – she is pregnant!
As you would expect, hilarity and confusion ensues as Don tries to come to terms with impending fatherhood, and the changes to his and Rosie's relationship. Don is as he has always been. It is Rosie that suddenly has the personality change.
Maybe it is because I have been pregnant, or maybe it is because I am a control freak, but I found Pregnant Rosie very different from Project Rosie. She just seems so irresponsible. I know I am probably sensitive about this subject, but she has such a careless attitude towards her baby. She continues to drink alcohol, fails to schedule important doctor's appointments, and although she seems to want the baby, she is not prepared to make any sacrifices for it.
Her attitude towards Don was also disappointing. I expected her to be more in tune with his...oddities, rather than expect him to act like an average expectant father. He is not average, and that is why we love him.
However, I am happy to report that both Rosie and the book redeemed themselves in the end. I could see things from Rosie's point of view and could forgive her, a little.
I still laughed out loud in a few places, and overall enjoyed the Don Tillman Ride.
[rating stars=”three-half-stars”]
Jason Mott introduces us to another fantastic idea. In The Returned he imagined a world where our dead come back to us. Now in The Wonder of All Things he explores the idea of a modern day miracle worker; a healer – and the ramifications that occur when the world comes knocking on this new ‘messiah's' door.
After an accident at an air show, thirteen-year-old Ava is caught on camera saving the life of her best friend, Wash. This unexplained miracle leads to thousands of people inundating the small town of Stone Temple – all hoping for a chance to see and possibly be healed by The Miracle Child. But healing takes a great toll on Ava: as she gives life, so hers drains away. With the thousands and thousands of people pleading for her help, who should Ava choose to save? And at what personal cost?
While the premise is promising, and the idea intriguing, I felt the story and writing fell a little flat. As with The Returned, I wasn't invested enough with most of the characters (with the exception of Ava's stepmother – Carmen). I also guessed the outcome of the story quite early on in the book – although that did not deter me. The premise wasn't pushed far enough, I felt as though we just barely broke the surface of major moral dilemmas – social responsibility; selfishness; science vs religion and so on.
At its heart The Wonder of All Things is about the value of life and what motivates us. Is every life equally important? Or should one be sacrificed to save many? There are many ethical conundrums in this book, and it will beg the question: what would I do?
I understand what Amis set out to achieve in this novel (and he succeeds!) - Mass murder as a business, dehumanising of victims etc etc - but I just couldn't take the horror any longer, so I gave up on this about halfway through. One of the darkest and most shameful periods of our history is treated as a ‘dark comedy', and I simply could not stomach it. 2.5 stars.
Out of sheer curiosity I sorted my Goodreads TBR list (all 106 of them) by descending order based on the average rating. Right at the very bottom was Christos Tsiolkas' controversial The Slap with a measly 3.11. This did not bode well for my next ARC by the same author - Barracuda (kindly supplied by Netgalley). I expected to meet characters I disliked; choppy, fragmented narrative; and some pretty in-your-face grit that was rather uncomfortable to read. Well, I was right. It was all of those things – and I really enjoyed it.
Barracuda follows the story of Daniel Kelly – an on-the-rise star of swimming. Plucked from his working class neighbourhood, a scholarship places him at a prestigious boys high school, where he has to endure bullying and isolation. The novel examines the extents we will go to to fulfil our dreams, and the shattering consequences that occur when our expectations fall short.
The characters in the book are mostly unlikable (I did like Dan's mother – Stephanie, and his best friend Demet.) although I think they are very realistic portrayals. I'm not sure what that says about the kind of people I know, but I think that there is a darkness in all of us, just as there is light. Some reviewers have labelled Danny as “wooden and self-indulgent” and while I agree with the latter, I believe Danny is a very complex and interesting character.
There are a lot of ‘time-jumps' during the narrative and I sometimes had to flip back to try and understand the timeline, but I quickly got used to it, and soon the narrative flowed.
Tsiolkas does not shy away from the gritty reality, so be prepared for some uncomfortable descriptions (at one point we get a really vivid description of Danny's diarrhoea, along with the charming smells that accompany it – TMI!)
In the end the story is about the price you pay to reclaim your life.
I enjoyed Tsiolkas' writing, and despite the low average user rating, I am going to read The Slap anyway.
