jenks
thread death
i know slightly discussed on the mitchell thread but i am trying to keep things tidy here.
on the back of jed's recommendation i read this with mounting disssatisfaction - this was the best novel ( with all the usual restrictions the booker places on these things) of last year???? how?? WHY?????
huge swathes of it seemed to be undigested plot or just plain smut - no objections to good bottom sex writing but this was rubbish.
the whole analogy of the rise of the thatcherite prperty owning classs and the slow and tragic spread of aids seemed to me to be entirely laboured and not very successful.
the one moment of powerful writing came in the final section when he finally had the ideas to match the poetry and the elegiacal tone fitted.
i know melmoth has talked about the ghost of henry james casting a pall over the novel at present and this has a self-consciously jamesian tone/ theme but i felt it ended up more like sixth form fitzgerald!
on the back of jed's recommendation i read this with mounting disssatisfaction - this was the best novel ( with all the usual restrictions the booker places on these things) of last year???? how?? WHY?????
huge swathes of it seemed to be undigested plot or just plain smut - no objections to good bottom sex writing but this was rubbish.
the whole analogy of the rise of the thatcherite prperty owning classs and the slow and tragic spread of aids seemed to me to be entirely laboured and not very successful.
the one moment of powerful writing came in the final section when he finally had the ideas to match the poetry and the elegiacal tone fitted.
i know melmoth has talked about the ghost of henry james casting a pall over the novel at present and this has a self-consciously jamesian tone/ theme but i felt it ended up more like sixth form fitzgerald!