The winner of the Man Booker International prize, announced today! I read it a few months ago, and loved it—never did post my YouTube review here, so here you go: https://youtu.be/-T8791KxQNM

The unparalleled joy of beginning a new-to-me Barbara Pym novel. There aren‘t many left before I‘ll have read the whole lot!

A 1936 English-language novel from Wales! Loving the writing so far!

Some fascinating geographical and cultural detail, but the writing/translation was just subpar. Decided not to continue after the 15% mark.

I read half of this, and while there were things I admired, I felt no strong emotions about any of the characters. So I have decided not to continue. I will try another, later novel by the same writer some day.

While I quite enjoyed Spargo-Ryan‘s debut, The Paper House, I couldn‘t get into this one, narrated by a decidedly inarticulate teenage girl. I missed the gorgeous sentences and insights peppering the first novel. Bailed a third of the way in.

The sadness that comes when a possible top read of the year ends up being a big, big disappointment...

https://youtu.be/uf8gGZKyHGA

After doing a deep dive on Google, I‘m pretty sure this is called a “boti”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boti

Well I gave it a try. The writing was so good, but the story was way, way, WAY too magically realist and fantastical and mythological for me. Blech. Bailed just under a fifth of the way in.

Damn, the opening chapters were so incredibly riveting but the author and his editor really fell asleep farther in. I have just read a chapter and a half of some of the crappiest prose ever, with eyerollingly god-awful sex scenes to boot. I‘m done. Bailed 70% of the way in.

This one just wasn‘t for me. I found the writing quite annoying, overly didactic, and whiny. Such an important story, but not told in a way that worked for me at all. Bailed just shy of page 40.

This opening paragraph of this new Irish debut novel so utterly beguiled me that I immediately bought the e-book. Two chapters in, I‘m feeling just as enthusiastic!

I read just over half of the stories and while they were extremely well written and rather comical in places, I simply couldn‘t bring myself to finish. Not enough human-character to-human-character dynamics; far too much about hunting and horse-racing and buying horses. Oh my God!

A lot of sadness and tragedy. Some impressively intricate storytelling. But I was not made to care about anyone or anything beyond what I would reading sad, tragic news articles. A novel must pull more of me in. Bailed just under halfway through.

Pretentious drivel. Bailed on page 3. Blech!

Full video review: https://youtu.be/8_OZt9x-BfE
After her masterpiece, The Lost Garden, this new Helen Humphreys novel was a huge disappointment. The first half is a meta-essay about the impossibility of fictionalizing in an interesting way the life of a woman who did nothing—nothing at all—except make salmon flies; in the second half, the ‘novel,‘ Humphreys goes on, alas, to amply prove the point. One of the most boring books I‘ve ever read.

How delightful to spend time with the one and only @Lindy during her visit to Japan, including this fun bookish chat!

https://youtu.be/F6g6SFdbFZU

I was never convinced that the first person voice was that of an 84-year-old Irish farmer. More than that, the writing was just too sentimental for me. I wasn‘t invested enough to feel anything in response to the first tragedy in the story, at page 60, and bailed a page or two after that.

I read just over a fifth of it. The story was holding my interest to a certain degree, but not enough to overlook the superficial characterization and ridiculously modern atmosphere and dialogue. Nope.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5047773#click=https://t.co/fAVCdSs1G...

From the story ‘Tomorrow is Too Far‘

I‘m not sure how to divvy up the blame between the author and the audio narrator, but this was just mind numbingly boring despite its biographical subject herself being so important and so darn interesting! I woke up at the 33% mark long enough to bail.

There was quite a bit that I liked about the 40% of this that I managed to get through, but what did me in was the tough, unrelenting slog of the vernacular prose, unrelieved by even a smidgeon of easy-to-read quote-unquote ‘standard English‘ exposition or 3rd-person narration. So, in the end, just no.