This was the last book club choice, after much dithering...
I'm still thinking about it. The oldest member of the group who is in her 80s and a voracious reader had finished it within a day or so of the meeting, and whatsapp'ed the group with her opinion that it was terrible and we should choose something else. But while we were all dithering and discussing she whatsapped up again to say on reflection it was worth reading.
One by one we embarked upon the journey.
It is like nothing that I have read before; the main character lives her life entirely through the internet and social media, and the book is written in snippets and paragraphs, sometimes as much a a whole page, but all disjointed and incoherent and - I have no words to describe it.
Here's an extract; see what you make of it...
I do/did spend a lot of my time on the internet - I don't go on facebook so much these days, maybe every week or so. But I blog, and read blogs, and use twitter a little bit. I shuffle through youtube for videos on this that and the other, surf the net for information and ideas, recipes, how to prune clematis, sew such and such a stitch, knit using 'magic loop', or whatever.
I never made it through the whole of the book, reading just a couple of pages each night I was just about to give up (there's no rule that says you HAVE to finish every book!) and whatsapped the group for their views.
'Is it going to be like this for the whole book?'
'No, stick with it - it changes in part 2'. So I skipped to part 2, and was pleased that I read to the very end.
It's not for everyone, and the second half is very different in content although similar in style, and I have been left thinking since I finished.
Would I recommend it? Depends who I am speaking to....
This month we are reading 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' by Muriel Barbery. I don't think it is going to be about hedgehogs, though.
(The great thing about using kindle is that you can download a sample before you buy.)
My group read The Elegance of the Hedgehog several years ago. I was intrigued but could not get past the first chapter. This month we are reading a book about the Mitford sisters I recommended. I am mildly irked that someone sent a message like your friend's - basically saying it was rubbish. It got good reviews so why spoil it for others?? I say, wait and bring yor views to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteI haven't started the hedgehogs yet. There was a lot of whatsappery after the book was chosen (we always seem to choose a book in a rush as the meeting is closing!) but after she sent round her reconsidered thoughts we settled down. It is certainly written in a challenging and different style to anything else I have read.
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