I probably wouldn’t have picked this up if it hadn’t been a book club selection, so thanks to Rosie for suggesting this.
A light and amusing taleI probably wouldn’t have picked this up if it hadn’t been a book club selection, so thanks to Rosie for suggesting this.
A light and amusing tale narrated by a fussy waiter in an Oslo restaurant, I found this unexpectedly entertaining. His quirks and tradition-loving prejudices are on full view as he describes his very narrow little world (although sometimes I thought he did have a point as he railed against some disagreeable aspects of the modern world). The Hills restaurant is the hang-out of several regulars whose antics sometimes disrupt his treasured routines. While not laugh-out-loud funny throughout, there were spots where I did giggle through entire pages. His going on and on about a Romanesco cauliflower, while much more verbose, somehow reminded me of “I carried a watermelon,” one of my favorite movie lines ever....more
OK. I'm done. This is putting me in a place of utmost unhappiness. Well, maybe not utmost, but it's certainly making me cranky. I tried, I really did.OK. I'm done. This is putting me in a place of utmost unhappiness. Well, maybe not utmost, but it's certainly making me cranky. I tried, I really did. But I'm done. I'll leave my interim review below to serve as my final word.
Funny thing about this book, my eyes keep sliding off the page. I’ll read a paragraph and then be looking out the window, “Ooh, pretty day!” Read another paragraph and wonder “Did I put Cheerios on the shopping list? I should do that right now before I forget.” [Find shopping list, write down “Cheerios.”] Read another two paragraphs. Can’t remember what the first of the two was about. Think “My car’s really dirty. I should go to the car wash.” Remember it’s a holiday. Car washes are closed. Read another paragraph and don’t care about what’s in it. Read another paragraph. Looking out the window again. “Still a pretty day. And those crazy birds, love it when they wheel around like that in a synchronized formation. So cool.” I really should finish this book because it’s for book club and I’d really like to finish it. Read another paragraph. “Thinking about Cheerios made me hungry. I need a snack.” Go into kitchen, find cookies, decide kitchen needs tidying up, unload dishwasher. Read another paragraph, and again, can’t remember what was in the previous one. Is it possible to develop ADD this late in life? Should call my doctor. Remember it’s a holiday. Put that on my to-do list for tomorrow. Read another paragraph and don’t care. Give up on the book for now, hoping tomorrow I’ll be more in the mood to read this book, even though that was my hope the last time I tried to read it and the time before that.
I’m not sure what the problem is. The prose is quite good and the characters are certainly colorful. There are lots of little interconnected stories that are also colorful. But it is all very episodic and, at 113 pages and a quarter of the way through, I still haven’t found any central conflict, overarching theme, or reason to care about what’s going on. It could improve and I’ll keep trying, but so far, focus is hard to come by....more
WTYSMD landed on this 10 Best list at Vulture. com (it's the only one of the ten I've read, but I thought it worth noting here) Update 8-24-17
WTYSMD landed on this 10 Best list at Vulture. com (it's the only one of the ten I've read, but I thought it worth noting here) http://www.vulture.com/article/best-b...
The title reeled me in, but the stories earned my respect.
This collection is divided into four sections. Parts 2 and 4 are comprised of one- to four-page flash and micro fiction, some of which I liked, although a few were a little too abbreviated, experimental and/or incomprehensible. Parts 1 and 3 contain short stories of conventional length and exceptional quality. Four of these are so good, I’m giving the whole book five stars just on the strength of those alone.
My favorites:
Pet Wait Till You See Me Dance Stay Where You Are Voltaire Nights
I was reading a library copy, but I may have to buy myself one sooner or later so I can admire these again whenever I want to.
If you need further persuasion that Unferth knows what she's doing, there is a blurb on the back of the book praising her stories as "smart, fast, full of heart, and distinctive in voice" and Unferth herself as "an important and exciting talent" by none other than George Saunders. George Saunders!...more
Afraid I'm going to have to give up on this. (Sorry, Ginge.) There's certainly nothing wrong with it on a sentence level. The individual sentences areAfraid I'm going to have to give up on this. (Sorry, Ginge.) There's certainly nothing wrong with it on a sentence level. The individual sentences are amazing. It's just that I can't seem to thread them together in a way that keeps me interested. I was just disengaged before; now I'm starting to get annoyed, so time to quit. ...more
Hot Milk left me rather cold and two weeks later I still can’t figure out why. It was a slower relationship-based story, told by a young woman who isHot Milk left me rather cold and two weeks later I still can’t figure out why. It was a slower relationship-based story, told by a young woman who is examining her obsession with her manipulative mother and the mother’s hypochondria. There are some interesting characters and the writing is quite lovely in places. A couple of friends have described it as “meandering” and I’m usually fine with meandering, but I never got to a point where I looked forward to picking it up. It’s a very short book, but took me almost three weeks to read. Perhaps that was due to a lack of sympathy for the apron-strung and directionless narrator.
I’m torn between 3 stars because it was fine in a “meh” kind of way, and 4 stars for the writing, which I have to admit is pretty good. I’ll split the difference and round up, because I think it was one of those cases where it was me, not the book, or maybe not the right time for me to enjoy this book. It never soured on me, or got cheesy. I just never warmed up to it. ...more
I always enjoy her writing, but this sort of genre-thing is not what Edith does best. Read House of Mirth instead, and Age of Innocence. Then House ofI always enjoy her writing, but this sort of genre-thing is not what Edith does best. Read House of Mirth instead, and Age of Innocence. Then House of Mirth again. ...more
Because it was October, I had campaigned for my book club to read something scary, but I was overruled and we ended up with Hotel World as2.5 stars
Because it was October, I had campaigned for my book club to read something scary, but I was overruled and we ended up with Hotel World as the selection. I didn’t get my first choice, which would have been Frankenstein, although I did get a ghost story, but a sad one, not a scary one. Told, as Ali Smith’s stories often are, by different characters in alternating sections, the language and narrative structure of the book are creative, sometimes experimental, which is also in keeping with what I’ve come to expect from her. This one, however, was not as skillful or readable as the other Smith novels I’ve read.
The several characters are people employed by or having some other connection to a corporate chain hotel in an English city: A young female employee who has a tragic accident; a night reception clerk who extends a kindness to a young homeless woman; a guest who’s a PR writer on assignment; the deceased employee’s little sister.
While much of the writing was innovative and imaginative, much of it seemed to ramble and not all of the characters’ narratives seemed entirely relevant to the story or action. Some sections were over -done and there were passages and scenes that went on much too long. The various parts of this story did not hold together as cohesively as I would have liked, so, yes to the writing; no to the rambling. I was going to give this a 2-star rating, but the penultimate section, in spite of being a very stream-of-consciousness narration of the not-so-easy-to-read, run-on, no-punctuation variety, earned an extra half- star because it got to me. The little sister’s memories of her sibling, little everyday moments evoking the older girl’s loves and talents and potential, shared experiences, and sisterly squabbles, form an elegy and subtle expression of grief I found quite moving.
The whole story is a hymn to life, an admonition to appreciate the experience, existing as we do in the shadow of our mortality. “Carpe diem” resonates throughout Hotel World which the London Times called a book “imbued with a powerful sense of wonder at the minutiae of everyday sensuality.”
So it had its moments and it was in no way bad, but I do wish it were tighter and more focused. Even though it’s only 240 pages as-is, this would have been a better book if it was cut by at least a third, a novella perhaps. However, this was only Smith’s second novel and I’m willing to cut her some slack. Her themes and style as they became more refined in later books are here in nascent form and here again she gets into the heads of girls and young women as well as anyone I’ve read. The six sections of the book, each narrated with a different POV, were titled Past, Present Historic, Future Conditional, Perfect, Future in the Past, and Present, and I loved the way she wove motifs of time and timekeeping into the action to reflect a concern with temporality and mortality.
I’ll definitely continue to read Smith’s books and am looking forward to There But for the . . . . After loving The Accidental and How to Be Both, I’ve come to expect great things. This was an early effort, a good training ground, but not as great as her later novels. I already know that after this one, she got better. Much, much better. ...more
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