so-soI am still working on the Booker longlist and was excited that this one was a shorter read. Little did I know it would take me the longest amount of time to read and honestly in the end the effort didn‘t seem worth it to me. It is not a bad book, it just didn‘t click with me.
Current audiobook…Another story I am giving a second chance and the audiobook is really helping.
pickAfter moving his daughter to college, instead of returning to the now empty nest of him and his wife Amy, Tom continues driving. All across the US, visiting friends and relatives and thinking a lot. He‘s your typical white 50+ male and that makes the book a bit predictable, yet I enjoyed spending time with Tom and his akward relationships.
Thanks for sharing this book with me Helen!
📸 Magome, Japan
pickI thought the concept was brilliant and original. Without giving anything away, I found myself wanting to save the characters. No, go left, don't call....
The paranoia was intense. I assume immigrants, whether Albanian or Guatemalan, live with daily paranoia. I don't assume, I know. They have to keep a low-key profile ALL the time. Who is safe? Who will help? The exhaustion.
After I post, I plan to look at other reviews.
pickWhite US male has mild midlife crisis and takes a roadtrip whilst re-evaluating his life and thinking a LOT about basketball. Everything is so mundane and unexceptional, it is both realistic and dreary. Very readable and I enjoyed all but the technical basketball talk. This is so American I would expect it to be a Pulitzer candidate (except Greer already won with a funnier version), but I am surprised to see it on the #Booker shortlist. Soft pick.
so-soTom promised that he would divorce his wife as soon as their youngest left for college after finding out about her affair. He drops off Miri at her dorm and just keeps driving.
This was an interesting book because the ending gives you a lot to think about. It takes a while to find the interesting parts, because not a lot of interesting things happen in the story, but at the end I felt that I was following someone's real life.
3.5⭐️
pickMiddle-aged middle-class man takes a midlife-crisis road trip. I‘m being snarky; this is a sweet book with an engaging narrative voice, and sums up well the uncertainties of this time of life from the male perspective. However re the Booker shortlisting, this one doesn‘t quite get there for me - SURELY the midlife-road-trip-crisis novel of the year must be All Fours? I am intrigued and puzzled as to why this would be chosen over that👇
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️ Story of an Albanian woman living in NYC, working as an interpreter, married to an American. She gets overly involved in the lives of other Southeastern European immigrants, straining her relationships. It had momentum but then the end just sort of petered off. It felt like nothing resolved, which left me wondering what the point was of picking it up at all. 🤷♀️ Between a soft pick and a so-so. #BookerLongList
