Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

"Often I get annoyed with books like this (Vonnegut etc.). Granted they raise a few interesting, if impractical ideas and provide a good number of quotes but they seem more of an author's indulgence than a legitimate story deserving of a book."

I wrote that early on through the book and was pleased that the story did settle in and become more of a story than an assortment of sporadic ideas and thoughts. That being said much of what happened in the story irked me for one reason or another. It didn't help that I'd started the movie and found it annoying for many of the same reasons, but even worse because you had to actually watch a kid actor acting grown up as written by an adult. 

The lack of wrapping up in the end could probably have been predicted but was still disappointing after having to persist in finishing the book despite reservations. It's not that it didn't have its moments and endearing qualities, just had many bothersome aspects to offset these. Hey - the creative font and photo inserts were neat.

Apr/May 2013

4

Exit Lines - Joan Barfoot

An eye-opening read for a self-obsessed youth. The characters are real and revealing, making the book riveting. It starts strongly, once everyone was straight in my head, and then it carries. Written in a style that crams many things into a sentence, similar to the way people actually think. In fact there seem to be occasions were multiple narrators take on a paragraph and there were a number of re-reads, moving the emphasis around, but it was worth it once you got it. Setting the stage was my favourite part of the book as I was not thrilled by the plot line once it was eventually revealed but persistence easily paid off. A fine, grounding read that manages to cover a lot of 'life' and ends up as an inspiration.

8
November 2012