Barbwebb1's review
Beginner's Greek : A Novel
by James Collins
Barbwebb1's review
Beginner's Greek : A Novel by James Collins
Barbwebb1's review
rating:
This book is very popular with literary critics--I heard about it on the NYTimes book review podcast and have read other positive reviews. This is an odd book--a satire of relationships among people of a certain social class, but not always. That's fine, I guess. I'm not going to be one to hold a book to complete consistency. But I got the sneaking feeling reading it that the author started out writing a straight-ahead romance and then realized how sappy and unbelievable it sounded and turned it into a satire--with poetic words of truth and wisdom intact. It is usually well-written and often funny. But I'm not always sure when it is supposed to be funny or what I'm taking away from it.
I'm guessing critics loved it because it operated for them on a highly sophisticated level of literary allusion and jokey insiderism. Either that or they assumed that's what was intended and the author (a very well-known magazine editor) is coasting to glory on his reputation.
I'm guessing critics loved it because it operated for them on a highly sophisticated level of literary allusion and jokey insiderism. Either that or they assumed that's what was intended and the author (a very well-known magazine editor) is coasting to glory on his reputation.
