Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish - 1 star

[Booknblues]

Now I know that I've said that I am usually good at predicting what I will like and generally never choose to read books, which fall below 3 stars for me, but I have to say Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish was a huge fail for me. I had high hopes because this book as it involves the romance between Zou Lei a Uighur undocumented refugee and Brad Skinner, a veteran of the Iraq war with PTSD and this seemed to indicate something I would be interested in. I should also note that this was the winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award and beat out such note worthies as Station Eleven and Dept. of Speculation.

It started out well enough and I was well into the book reading paragraph after paragraph similiar to the following:

THEY TOOK THE SUBWAY from Queens down to Canal Street in Manhattan. It was full of African, Bangladeshi, and Chinese vendors, selling I Love New York shirts and counterfeit Rolexes. From here they walked down to the city buildings. The big gray granite buildings took up block after block. At the criminal and family courts, the doorways were four stories high and there were crowds outside waiting to get in through the metal detectors.

I read through long drawn out scenes in restaurants, bars, McDonalds and it seemed to go on and on. Added to that was the lack of redemptive quality. I kept hoping at about 60% through my hope felt shattered and I quickly skimmed through the rest of the book to ascertain if my assessment was correct and yes, it ended without redemption except for a bit in the epilogue.

I cannot recommend this book.