This book has nothing to recommend it. The characters are uninteresting to the point that I don't care what happens to any of them. They are dropped a...moreThis book has nothing to recommend it. The characters are uninteresting to the point that I don't care what happens to any of them. They are dropped at random anyway. There are plot threads that lead utterly nowhere. What was the point of the little incest tangent that went nowhere? What was the point of the ending? By the end it didn't make any difference to me what Born had or had not done. I find it bizarre that this book got good reviews. The use of the second person seemed utterly contrived, as if the author just really wanted to prove he could do it.(less)
This was nicely written and well plotted. It doesn't have the depth that would elevate it to the level of literature, but it is promising. I enjoyed r...moreThis was nicely written and well plotted. It doesn't have the depth that would elevate it to the level of literature, but it is promising. I enjoyed reading it at face value.(less)
**spoiler alert** Edit 2:Well, it was actually pretty good. I loved the narrative voices. The plot was unbelievable at some points though. Little Bee...more**spoiler alert** Edit 2:Well, it was actually pretty good. I loved the narrative voices. The plot was unbelievable at some points though. Little Bee would not tell Lawrence her full story. She just wouldn't. She wouldn't have needed to, she had already blackmailed him, and he would have thought it was because she was desperate to stay because she had nowhere to go and that would have been enough for him. People who are scared and desperate are careful.
Then there was the holiday in a remote part of Nigeria. I am straining to believe this. And even if that is believable, the part with Sarah and the journalism in Nigeria at the end is just bordering on ridiculous. There is no way the security would have let Sarah and Little Bee roam free like that, because they could have done a runner at any time. And they wouldn't have leter her get away with her journalism because she was asking all the wrong types of questions. Dubious.
Also I am really tired of reading about the "changing the world" syndrome. Can't someone be editor of a lighthearted magazine because they want to?
But it was a well written, well edited book. A little over the top and bordering on overly sentimental and emotional. But it was far better than I expected. The writer should have a serious talking to to whoever wrote the cover blurb and the front page, because I would have bought this book in a book shop and not second hand if it wasn't for the terrible, terrible blurb.
**
EDIT: out of sheer curiosity as to why the blurb was so so bad, I have to read this.
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I will never be able to bring myself to read this book. When I saw it in the bookshop I was so put off by the vomitous blurb that is quoted above that they lost a sale then and there.
If it was some kind of sad marketing ploy it backfired. That blurb is trying so cringeingly hard. I assume this to mean the book is substandard. And life is too short to find out.(less)
I really enjoyed this, it was well written. I realised reading this that I know absolutely nothing about the history of Zimbabwe. My education was so...moreI really enjoyed this, it was well written. I realised reading this that I know absolutely nothing about the history of Zimbabwe. My education was so localised, we didn't even move much past the history of my province! So I learned a lot about Zimbabwe. The childhood aspects were very familiar to me. I grew up in much the same way, only in a city environment. The informal Apartheid style of living surprised me a bit, because I find that British people love to look down upon Apartheid, but things weren't much different in their colony. (less)
I enjoyed this book more than Freedom, even though The Corrections is far more flawed. It really could have done with some editing, it was so inconsis...moreI enjoyed this book more than Freedom, even though The Corrections is far more flawed. It really could have done with some editing, it was so inconsistent.
Firstly, I enjoyed it because the characters were all fascinating, and Franzen is so clever and funny and cynical. You can't help nodding and identifying. I really started to get attached to the characters, but here is where the book did not deliver, because I think Franzen had too many characters and in the end he couldn't give enough story time to any of them, and none of their stories were tied up satisfactorily. For this reason they are unmemorable.
The style of the book was all over the place. The first page is very "writerly" and "poetic" and more than once Franzen used ridiculously long sentences. One of them stretches to about a page. I realise the sentence was meant to evoke a man with Parkinsons, but actually it was just annoying beyond belief. After that the book becomes more "readerly", with normal sized sentences, and it is very enjoyable reading. He does throw in random arty bits now and then which seem utterly out of place with his otherwise snappy style.
The plot can be ludicrous too. There are a lot of "Mr Hanky" moments. And the thing with Lithuania was too much, and insulting to Lithuanians, I'm sure.
In the end I didn't care about the characters because he left them all hanging and wrote them all off without giving them the attention they needed.
Franzen's books appear to have no depth and nothing that moves me beyond surface cleverness. This is why he is so popular now, he is accessible like Dallas. But I doubt his books will live on in anyone's minds.
This is a very enjoyable read. It gets far too wrapped up in the importance of its THEMES, ie class and philosophy. But if you can look past these fla...moreThis is a very enjoyable read. It gets far too wrapped up in the importance of its THEMES, ie class and philosophy. But if you can look past these flaws it is delightfully French and fun.(less)
There were a whole bunch of unusual and funky ideas thrown into this book, but that doesn't make a good story. It just wasn't written very well. Ideas...moreThere were a whole bunch of unusual and funky ideas thrown into this book, but that doesn't make a good story. It just wasn't written very well. Ideas does not a story make.(less)
This was great fun to read. He is a very smart, very cynical writer. The plot wrapped up well in the end. But I really do not understand the fuss over...moreThis was great fun to read. He is a very smart, very cynical writer. The plot wrapped up well in the end. But I really do not understand the fuss over Franzen. This book had nothing deeper in it that will make it last in the memory. The characters are interesting and funny, but utterly forgettable. He writes so brilliantly well on the surface, but I feel there is nothing more to this book than cleverness. It was an enjoyable read, but instantly forgotten. (less)
I feel used by the author. When you buy a book, you assume it has been through a basic level of editing. This book had not. It was terrible. There wer...moreI feel used by the author. When you buy a book, you assume it has been through a basic level of editing. This book had not. It was terrible. There were parts that were quite well written, usually the violence scenes, those were quite convincing. The rest was so so bad. Sometimes she changed tense within a sentence. I accidentally skipped three chapters and went back later to read them. There was no need. They could have been left out. As could have half the book. It was self indulgent and just bad. The word "twaddle" knocks around in my head when I think of it. I don't trust the Booker Prize any more.(less)
![What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317792264s/13258.jpg "What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]")
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