genre whiplash!
1 Jul 2011 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouThe Skull Mantra is intense, austere, and awfully bleak for the majority of it (and I have some issues with what might lean towards a kind of romanticizing going on there in the middle, but I'm refraining because I'm not sure how to discuss w/out spoilers). The Feng Shui Detective is like the polar opposite: oddball, multicultural to the most clashing but humanistic extreme (including "teenager"), and very little introspection. Unless, of course, bemoaning the sad fate of this world in the hands of the younger generation counts as introspection. A fun ride.
The Whale Caller is a love story, but with a delicate phrasing that reads almost like a fairy tale or old folklore, that kind of "only simple on the surface" -- but unfortunately, it's just not where my taste is at right now. I think I need to track down Mda's work that I'd originally wanted (which my local library didn't have, so I grabbed this one as replacement).
And lastly, I have tried four times now, over the course of today, to get into White Teeth and it's just not happening. Not meant as insult to the author's skill, which is clearly considerable; it has more to do with the fact that maybe I'm just not in the right place for literary fiction. I enjoy good writing, but the good writing needs to have a problem to solve (and the wish to solve it) underneath. I pushed through to the second chapter, decided that was enough of an attempt, and tomorrow I'll move onto the next set from the list.
ETA: now reading Warchild. Nearly quit on the first page -- I did my time with Bright Lights Big City for the entire freaking novel of that, thanks -- so skimmed & skipped until it shifted to first-person-past. Second-person is just too gimmicky. Reaction at halfway point: it's okay. Not blown away. Still reading though, which is something, I suppose.
The Whale Caller is a love story, but with a delicate phrasing that reads almost like a fairy tale or old folklore, that kind of "only simple on the surface" -- but unfortunately, it's just not where my taste is at right now. I think I need to track down Mda's work that I'd originally wanted (which my local library didn't have, so I grabbed this one as replacement).
And lastly, I have tried four times now, over the course of today, to get into White Teeth and it's just not happening. Not meant as insult to the author's skill, which is clearly considerable; it has more to do with the fact that maybe I'm just not in the right place for literary fiction. I enjoy good writing, but the good writing needs to have a problem to solve (and the wish to solve it) underneath. I pushed through to the second chapter, decided that was enough of an attempt, and tomorrow I'll move onto the next set from the list.
ETA: now reading Warchild. Nearly quit on the first page -- I did my time with Bright Lights Big City for the entire freaking novel of that, thanks -- so skimmed & skipped until it shifted to first-person-past. Second-person is just too gimmicky. Reaction at halfway point: it's okay. Not blown away. Still reading though, which is something, I suppose.
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Date: 3 Jul 2011 07:25 am (UTC)Yay, reviews! I love reviews. Are you going to do this for the whole list? *crosses fingers*
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Date: 3 Jul 2011 03:35 pm (UTC)