Letter to the Stockholm Bookworms prior to a meeting to discuss the much-hyped 'Normal People' by Salley Rooney.
Greetings from London,
I couldn't resist sacrificing some valuable shopping time to have a brief word about this book. It is definitely not
my cup of carrot juice. I had difficulty getting beyond the first few
chapters. Had I picked it up in a bookshop to read a little before
making a decision, it would have gone back on its shelf double
quick. Apart from finding the present tense uncalled for
and difficult to get used to, I kept coming across expressions like,
“It's a face like a piece of technology.” Can someone explain
what “a piece of technology” is and what such a human face really
looks like
Before long there was:
“She was attuned to his body in a microscopic way.” What, may I
ask, is that supposed to mean? And then: “Their secret weighed
inside her body...pressing down on her pelvic bones.” After that,
I'd had enough as the writing was beginning to press down not only on
other vital parts of my anatomy but all my senses.
An Amazon 1-star
reviewer gives some more Rooneyisms, like: “He's wholesome like a
big baby tooth.” And: “The heat beats down on the back of
Connell's neck like the feeling of human eyes staring.” And so it
goes on. And on. Book of the year? For me, how this gibberish got into print
remains one of the mysteries of the year. At the very least, the
publisher's editor should be arrested and put on trial charged with
gross negligence, causing untold harm to perfectly innocent and
unsuspecting readers duped by the hype.
Yet on both the British and US Amazon
sites, 44% of those rating the book gave it a 5, although no fewer
than 24% of the UK reviewers were lone-star people and some of those
would have given it a very round nought if that were possible.
Nevertheless, let's let the admirers (I suspect that Rooney has a very large extended family) have their say.
“I loved this book, I
couldn't put it down,” writes one (her mother?). “I felt a strong connection
with all the characters, it explores human relations at it's best and
worst... This is one of those books that will stay with me and I
can't wait for what Sally Rooney (my daughter?) comes up with next!”( Hmmm.)
“I
cried a little and found it moving,” writes someone else. “It was
an easy read, which was a pleasant welcome after some stuff I have
read recently.”
Here's another member of the fan club:
“Rooney has a real talent in making you care about these characters
and what happens to them, as well as subtly explaining the reasons
for their seemingly unexpected and usually misguided actions and
decisions... I cannot recommend this book highly enough...”
Contrast those remarks
with these from the opposite end of the scale:
“I absolutely hated
this book and hated that it sucked hours of my life reading it. I
kept hoping it would get better but it just droned on. If this is
what millennial writers have to offer, I will begin re-reading the
classics or authors from previous generations who knew how to write.
Ugh. Horrible.”
“If I could have
given this book no stars I would have! It was so dull, boring, badly
written and irritating! I had no empathy with any of the characters.
I can't believe the comments on the cover are actually about this
book!”
“Quite the most inane
and intensely annoying book I have ever read.No cliche is left in the
bag,the main characters are self absorbed bores,stuff just stupidly
happens to enable the damn thing to keep moving forward until the
inevitable ending is crowbarred in.”
“Worthless. I wish I
could delete the mental pain caused by "this thing", but it
is too late now that I've read it. There was no space in the
household waste for it, and Bonfire night is too far away, so I have
recycled it.”
And there's lots more
in the same vein, on both sides. I don't think I've ever found a
book with opinions about it so polarised
My advice is beware of
people with heat-ray eyes breathing down your neck, and above allt,
take good care of those pelvic bones.
Love to all,
Stanley
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