Campbell Andrews’s Reviews > Mona Acts Out > Status Update

a fire extinguisher “landed with a thud.”

Setting aside the cliche — no it wouldn’t. Fire extinguishers are metal, it would land with a clang or a clatter or, if onto a softer surface, a “thwap” or the like.

A writer’s word choices can be so perfunctory that they make me worry for his mental health.

(sad this is such a slog)

Mona’s memories are a problem: the details are too specific. the narrator isn’t omniscient, so it’s as if Mona is some kind of savant

clearly a comedy, yet so far there’s too often an imprecision of language that dulls the edge