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And I'm out...
I'm sorry to say that I've given up on my second Booker Prize novel, How to Paint a Dead Man, by Sarah Hall. Sorry because I absolutely hate giving up on books, but life is too short and too busy, and this one has been sitting by my bed for 2 weeks now and I've had to force myself to read further. It's also a shame because the writing is beautiful. This, for example:Still, there you were, together, from the very beginning. You shared a pillow of placenta, pedalled in tandem against your mother's belly. You heard concurrently the wet chamber music of her body, shared nutrients, and dreamt the same hermetic dream.
Elegant and poetic, but ultimately the narrative was just not strong enough to maintain my interest. There are four strands to the novel, each concerned with art and it's place in the world, but I read a third of the novel and became frustrated that there was no plot to speak of and nothing to urge me forward. I guess I need a good story. Maybe I should get the new Dan Brown (JOKE).
2 comments:
A shame 'true' but life is far too short. I'm awful with books and it has to be just so to capture my attention.
Have a lovely day and thank you for the link. I'm off to check it out.
Nina x
I can't remember who said, that a book shoukd't be finished just because it was started, or something like that.
Yep, too short a life, too many good books, to bother with the mediocre or what just doesn't do it for you.
I love character driven novels, where there is little in the way of plot. But for that to work, it has to be very good writing and really interesting characters.
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