| 50 books in a year 2009 - #29 |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|09:18 am] |
Welcome to Life
By Alice De Smith
Adolescence is never easy. But for fourteen-year-old Freya - brought up by parents who act like teenagers, and surrounded by teenagers all too desperate be grown-ups - it's bewildering. All she wants is a bit of attention...But her parents are too wrapped up in their own dramas to register Freya's. And when her parents break dramatically with marital convention, they leave Freya in turmoil as she realizes that, for Millie and Hugh, three is not a crowd...
Books about teenagers can often be embarassing. Too many self-concious references to sex and clothes and shoehorned mentions of bands.
This book is nothing of the sort. It flows with the same speed of how life changes when you're that age - fast, cruel and shocking - and has some one liners which made me laugh out loud.
The central relationship between Millie and her daughter was upsetting at times but felt real and not at all staged or over -dramatic and the ending was surpising but just right. This is an impressive novel, even more so because it's a debut.
I can't wait to see what she writes next. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #28 |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|09:27 pm] |
A Perfectly Good Family
By Lionel Shriver
Following the death of her worthy liberal parents, Corlis McCrea moves back into her family's grand Reconstruction mansion in North Carolina, willed to all three siblings. Her timid younger brother has never left home. When her bullying black-sheep older brother moves into 'his' house as well, it's war. Each heir wants the house. Yet to buy the other out, two siblings must team against one. Just as in girlhood, Corlis is torn between allying with the decent but fearful youngest and the iconoclastic eldest, who covets his legacy to destroy it
Families are funny things. WE can moan about them all we like to our mates, but stand up for them with grit if anyone else pipes up. So I can't fathom why someone would want to publicly explore a family which is very close to their real-life set -up.I couldn't deal with the indignation, or the letters or the silence which the author recieved when her family read this.
Although totally engaging, the characters in this are flawed and unsympathetic, which is how real people are innit? Corlis infuriated me, with her lack of decisiveness, as did Trueman - a grown up who was whinier than a teething baby. Eldest brother Mordecai was spot on for the time - all long plaits, meat and grunge - and reminded me of many men I've met who desperately try to be provocative in order to hide the softness underneath.
The idea that adults feel like they are entitled to their parents belongings no matter what fascinates me. If someone leaves you something fair enough, but to ffeel liek you;re owed just because you exist is madness. So the central story grabbed me from the outset, although I really wanted at least one the chracaters to realise they were not entitled.
I loved the way she spun this - from an interesting premise, past arguments and grudges right up to the unexpected ending - and whilst this may not be the most flattering portrait of families , it was honest and unflinching, funny and embarrassing, just the like the best families. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #27 |
[Nov. 2nd, 2009|10:31 pm] |
Juliet, Naked
By Nick Hornby
Annie and Duncan are a mid-thirties couple who have reached a fork in the road, realising their shared interest in the reclusive musician Tucker Crowe (in Duncan's case, an obsession rather than an interest) is not enough to hold them together any more. When Annie hates Tucker's 'new release', a terrible demo of his most famous album, it's the last straw - Duncan cheats on her and she promptly throws him out. Via an internet discussion forum, Annie's harsh opinion reaches Tucker himself, who couldn't agree more. He and Annie start an unlikely correspondence which teaches them both something about moving on from years of wasted time. Nick Hornby's compelling new novel, four years after A Long Way Down, is about the nature of creativity and obsession, and how two lonely people can gradually find each other.
I love Nick Hornby. He writes convincing female characters and also does men without going anywhere near the whole 'lad lit ' *pukes* schtick of Tony *pukes again* Parsons.
He had the geekiness of music buffs down with 'High Fidelity' and although it features as part of Juliet, the story is more about Annie - who has reached a point in life where she wonders why she wasted it on a man who bored her in a rundown northern seaside town.
I liked Annie, much more than any of the male characters, and whilst this could have been a ridiculous book, full of daft characters getting themselves into unbelievable scrapes with terrible dialogue, but because it;s warm, funny and spot on. It may not be as mint as 'High Fidelity' but it's definately worth checking out. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #26 |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|08:38 pm] |
Attachment
By Isabel Fonseca
How well do you really know the people you love? How well do you know yourself? "Attachment" is a bold and thoughtful fictional debut that reaches from the Indian Ocean to London and New York, and into the most confounding precincts of the human heart. Jean Hubbard is a syndicated health columnist, her husband Mark, a successful advertising-executive. After more than twenty years together, they revel in a sabbatical on a remote tropical island. But when Jean opens an erotically charged email intended for Mark, she realizes that she has misdiagnosed some acute pathologies in her own life.The long idyll is over - but a more vivid, and compelling, quest has just begun. Searching for answers Jean goes undercover: with a surreptitious correspondence that propels her on to alarming, and illuminating, adventures of her own.
If there ever needed to be any more proof how smug and self absorbed middle class people can often be, then this book is solid proof.
Whilst the actual writing is fine, and the premise interesting, any interest I had in this evaporated after a few chapters when i realised there is not one character in this book that I cared about....each one was flawed and self-regarding, and even the twist in the heroine's mystery at the end was dull, made even duller by how much she was wrapped up inside her own head by the end. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #25 |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|08:30 pm] |
Midwives, Chris Bohjalian's fifth novel, is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a lay midwife in rural Vermont, and her daughter, Connie. The nexus of this cautionary tale is an emergency Caesarean section Sibyl performs during a home birth that goes disastrously wrong. Believing the mother is already dead from a stroke, Sibyl operates and later finds herself on trial for killing the woman. The compelling story of her trial and its aftermath comes to us from Connie, who believes "this is my story, too." In fact, Connie's reaction to her mother's ordeal is to go to medical school and become an obstetrician. The book raises provocative issues about medical ethics and the limits of risk.
If you say something is akin to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (which the cover of this did) then it had better be an awesome book, because you can't compare to that lightly.
Well, whilst this wasn't a dreadful book, it should ont be mentioned in the same breath as Harper Lee's incendiary novel. Aint no way!
This starts off pretty well, with an awful tragedy at a birth and each chapter (told by the midwife's daughter) is nicely interspersed with notes from her hotebooks. The shame is that the story, like the trial, drags on and by the end, I just wanted to find out if she was found guilty - not out of suspense, but boredom. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #24 |
[Oct. 23rd, 2009|08:15 pm] |
Talk of the Town - Jacob Polley
It's 1986, the last day of the summer holidays, and Christopher Hearsey is wondering why his best mate Arthur has suddenly disappeared, and whether lippy Gill Ross a few doors down might know anything about it. The great border city of Carlisle is buzzing with rumours following an act of terrible violence, and in order to begin his search Chris must face down his own dread, not only of the consequences of his own actions, but of local big man Booby Grove, and his psychotic sidekick Carl 'the black' Hole, who is keen to settle an old score. Populated by a menacing and hilarious cast of characters, and moving from the dark aggrieved streets of the city to the agricultural hinterland of the Solway Firth, this is the story of a boy desperate to get out of town, out of a bad situation, even out of his own skin. Written with a moving demotic brilliance, reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn, "Talk of the Town" is an exhilarating and terrifying odyssey.
An ace book that made me remember the horrors of being a teenager, I found this hard going at first as it's written in the Cumbrian dialect, but a few pages of reading aloud sorted that and I settled into the sharp yet descriptive prose of poet -turned-novelist Polley.
This was a believable potrayal of being a teenager in a small town , taking the boredom, paranoia and uncertainty that everything from school to love to parents can bring up. It had a large cast of characters who were all well thought out, and none were surplus to the plot which was a refreshing change.
The 80s were referenced without glaring neon signposts, and the thing I loved about this was the subtly about everything - from the careful language which spelled out big things in few words, to the intricacies of school and trying to get along without getting killed whilst you're there.
The best things about this book are Christopher and Gill - I loved Christopher for his awkwardness whilst trying to appear cool and Gill's blase attitude which hid a naive girl below the brassy surface.
This a book about journeys - both physical and mental - which like most things when you're that age appear to be a massive, dramatic event, but in retrospect are pretty small, and it's one I would throughly reccommend.
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #23 |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|04:08 pm] |
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by Helen Walsh
On the coldest night of 1975, a young man with shock-red hair tears though the snowbound streets of Warrington's toughest housing estate. He is Robbie Fitzgerald, and he is running for his life - and that of his young family. In his heart, Robbie knows the odds are stacked against them. In this unbending Northern town, he has married the beautiful brown nurse who once stitched up his wounds. Susheela is his Tamil Princess, but in the real world, the Fitzgeralds have to face up to prejudice, poverty and sheer naked hatred from their neighbours. Now Robbie has seen a way out, and he's sprinting to his date with destiny...But back at their low-rise flat, Susheela hears a noise. This single moment starts a chain of events that will reverberate throughout the lives of all four Fitzgeralds - herself, Robbie, their son Vincent and unborn daughter, Ellie. Over thirteen years of struggle, aspiration, achievement, misunderstandings, near-misses and shattered dreams, Helen Walsh plunges us into the lives and loves of the young, doomed Fitzgerald family.
This is the best book i have read in aaages. I loved her first book Brass - a dark and seedy tale of drugs, sex and forgetting set in Liverpool - but this, is a total departure, it's warm and well-developed and, well, it's a thing of awe and beauty.Starting with a horrific moment which changes the family forever, this weaves and bobs over two decades of their 4 lives - focusing on the internal struggles the family have and the way they deal with them with each other. Walsh can write from a variety of POV's and makes each character whole and flawed.
Ellie's teenage clubbing scenes are reminiscent of 'Brass' as are some of Vincent's explorations of Manchetser's back alleys, but her writing doesn't feel forced when dealing with Susheela and Robbie's disintergrated marriage and the displament both of them feel. She makes their lives are just as believable and true, espcially Robbie's struggle between his dreams and the reality of his life. Historical refences are all over here but aren't shoehorned in to make the reader aware of the decade, and her way of painting Warrington and Manchester's dirtier side with geuine affection, which is romantic and raw at once. It's an awesome book and was so good that the build up to the ending plus the epilogue had me belling like a baby - it was poignant without being cheesy and was a brave ending, which many authors would have sugar coated.
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #22 |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|10:46 pm] |
The Posession of Mr Cave
By Matt Haig
Terence Cave, intellectual, music-lover and owner of Cave Antiques, has experienced more than his share of tragedies. His mother's suicide and his young wife's death at the hands of burglars left him to bring up his young twins alone. And now one of them has died in a grotesque accident as a result of bullying. Bryony, the remaining twin, has always been the family's great hope: a golden teenager, in love with her cello and her pony, clever, sweet and eager to please. Now that she is all Terence has left, he realises that his one duty in life is to keep her safe from the world's malign forces, whatever that may take.
I loved Matt Haig's previous books (Last Family in England and Dead Fathers Club) and thought I may like this too, but it just depressed me.
The tale of a middle class dad who basically stalks his own daughter after her twin brother dies, this looked like it would be an interesting study on grief and the weird things it makes people do, and at points this does manage that, but it's the kind of story where no good can come, and i could feel my heart sinking as i got closer to the end.
I'd give it to fathers of daughters to warn them not to become TOO attached to their girls. *shudders* |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #21 |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|10:41 pm] |
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Cold Earth By Sarah Moss
Six young people meet on an archaeological dig in a remote corner of Greenland. Excavating the unsettling remains of a Norse society under attack, they also come to uncover some of their own demons, as it becomes apparent that a plague pandemic is sweeping across the planet and communication with the outside world is breaking down. Increasingly unsure whether their missives will ever reach their destination, each of the characters writes a letter to someone close to them, trying to make sense of their situation and expressing their fears and dwindling hope of ever getting back home
This seemed to be an exciting premise, but never really reached the scale of drama promised i=on the back cover.
A pandemic happening whilst you're trapped in Greenland, without a working computer, phone and with things going the bump in the night sounds exciting, but this never reached any sort of peak.
Starting off slow, narrated by an annoying character (nina) for most fo the book, letting the other charcters have a few scrappy pages each, then *boof* story ends, go to epilogue which ties things up nicely, without ever really explaining why about any of the questions raised thoughout.
There were too many characters with 4 of them barely getting a look inwhen it came to narrating and therefore development...it would ahve been better to have less characters and share the story outamong 4 charcters perhaps?
Also, there were a lot of themes and debates explored through the characters internal and external dialogue, plus a ghost story plus a pandemic plus a Lost style situation. It made me a bit breathless just thinkign about it.
It would be wrong to say that i disliked the book - i actually raced through it to find out what happened - BUT there was just a lot going on in a small space.
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| Bring on the trumpets!!! Hosting our first bout..... |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|09:36 am] |
It's 2 weeks until MMR host our first ever bout.
Unlike most sensible leagues, when we started talking about this in March, after our first ever public bout in Brum, we didn’t hold a closed one first and then see how that goes.
Oh no, we decided to book a massive venue, 4, yes 4 teams, and hold it for FREE , meaning we had to fundraise a heck of a lot of moolah to make it happen (last one before the bout is our 2nd Birthday Luau on 12th Sept at uncle Alberts - come and support us!)
To say it's been hectic is an understatement, BUT, it's also shown what an awesome bunch of gals and a few boys we have in our little league. The 'to do list' is getting smaller, the contracts are sorted, we've begged and borrowed equipment (Thank you Green Dragon studios) and promo material (thank you tenfeettall!) and have around 400 people with their names down for tickets. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #19 + #20 |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|11:14 pm] |
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#19
Menage By Ewan Morrison
In 1993, Dot, Saul and Owen lived together on the fringes of the Hoxton art scene, shoplifting, dole scrounging, doing drugs and swapping clothes and beds. Their year as a menage, however, led to a suicide attempt, to art stardom, and to one of the three vanishing from the world. Fifteen years later there is a big retrospective of Dot's art and they are each drawn back into each other's lives.'
Not as seedy as it sound, this explores how people depend on each other, and how some relationships need a third wheel to make sense of them.
Told from the perspective of Owen, as a grown up art critic, reviewing his ex housemate, friend and lover Dot's video installations, this is a believable set up, which paints up the era of New British Artists to be silly, grubby, and exciting as it was painted in the press at the time.
The past storyline is complimented by athe two meeting again now, grown up, but not much wiser, and with their coupling comes the reappearance of Saul, the least likeable of the three. A thought -provoking idea which is entirely believable and a step on from his previous book 'Swung'.
#20
The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum
When feisty and successful Manhattan attorney Emily Haxby ends her happy relationship just as her boyfriend is on the verge of proposing, she can't explain to herself, let alone her closest friends, why she did it. And whilst Emily contemplates whether she has made a huge mistake, the rest of her world begins to unravel. As Emily finally begins to take control of her life and come to terms with issues she didn't even know she had, she realizes that perhaps what she wants has been there all along...
I picked this up despite the schmooshy title as it was about someone the same age as me, ina city i like reading about. I hopedit would be an ok book to pass the time, but it was a lot better than I expected.
Her struggles at work and even bigger struggle with her deteriorating grandfather were well written and entirely convincing, even if the ending was a wee bit predictable.
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| Being a good guest |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|10:11 pm] |
So, in another derby first, last weekend I guest skated for another team for the first time. I became an honourary Sheffield Steel Roller Girl as they played their debut bout. Against Leeds (who have played against the LRG and at Roll Britannia).
They made us MMR guests feel very welcome, even giving us a gift bag with lovely things in and very much part of the team.
It was always gonna be a tough bout but the Sheffield girls approached it with enthusiasm, skill,, tenacity and excitement. They fought and played hard, and even though it was apparent by half time that LRD would win, it didnt stop them coming back stronger in the second half - with their first half nerves gone, as is usual for many leagues, they focused more on tactics and slowing it all down.
They were blimmin awesome and I was very proud to have been part of it.
Final Scores:
LRD Rotten Rollers 274 - Sheffield Steel Rollergirls 58
In a few weeks time, 4 of the Sheff girls are becoming honourary MMR's as we host our first bout - Northern EXPOsure. Gonna have to make sure the gift bags are good!
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| Roll Britannia ! |
[Aug. 6th, 2009|05:06 pm] |
A few weeks ago I played in the very first European Roller Derby tournament in London. And not just in any old venue…Earls Court!
 As a lot of the MMR ladies were off on holiday we didn’t have enough players for a full roster, so some of us joined forces with Royal Windsor roller girls and Rebellion Rollergirls to become Royal Rebel Rollers. The three teams met for the first time on the track, and with no practises together it was a scary but exciting proposition.
Our first bout was against the awesome AARG - who are built like brick walls and are adept at forming human ones. The problem with derby is playing against women you like. These girls encouraged me and the mmr girls after our first closed bout where we were terrified and didn’t; do veryw ell, and have also guested for us against BBDD. So coming up against em here was interesting. I tried a bit of trash talk to Hurricane Hayles, who laughed at me (arf). And the lovely Armalite Angie told me to hit her harder :)
 We played hard but they won, and then it was off to eat protein and carbs to prepare for our next bout against CCR. This time, we had a very stirring team talk beforehand, with rebellion's Inky Minx telling us what we needed to build on from the first game. Something happened in that small gap between bouts as every one of us seemed to find a new attitude and we went out to meet CCR fighting.
 They were not easy opponents - well practised, hard hitters and nippy with it - they were a league I’ve never played against and one who I was looking forward to playing. As the half time buzzer rang it seemed we were in the lead and we were buzzing off this. One sweaty, grinning team photo later and we were back on the track, where, after a lot of determination and tactical play, we only bloody won. Cue much screaming, crying and hugging.
 And then, as I arrived home on Sunday, and logged on to watch the final on DNN, I got a text that was the cherry on top of the skatey cake - I got Most valued Player (!!!) for RRR. And wona bloody name necklace made by tatty devine (double !!!)
It was an awesome weekend and i couldn't get over how smoothly things went at the turnament - big props to organisers and winners London rollergirls! This was my first experience of winning anything sport wise. I’ve never been sporty, always lurking in the back when teams were getting picked at school and hating every minute of the actual games, but doing well at this, the sport which has taken over my life and introduced me to some of the coolest and most importantly nicest people ever, well, has made me want to do even better. Next stop, I’m guesting for Sheffield Roller Girls as they take on Leeds, then the big one….sat 19th September. MMR host 3 other leagues (Leeds! Central city! Severn torrent!) in Darlington at theNorth east's first ever derby expo Northern EXPOsure!
I cannot blimmin wait. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #14 - #18 |
[Jul. 29th, 2009|12:40 pm] |
it's been a while - excuse my absence - too busy reading and also playing roller derby to blog innit...ok here's a list of the past few books....
#14
Choke - Chuck Paluniak
I couldn't like this. Too sickly and grim and intentionally provocative. Characters I couldn't care less about - mean sex addicts, scary mums gone mental, nurses who are not all they seem. Made me numb to them after a while, provoking boredom instead of shock.
#15
The Take - Martine Cole
Apparently people are snobby about Martina Cole. I read this after seeing the gorgeously big lipped Tom Hardy snarl and punch his way through the Sky 1 adaptation. The programme was gruesome at times, but the book was even better. Cole's attention to detail when it comes to the 80s, family politics and killings (done by adults and children) was impressive. The only thing that jarred was the reliance on characters 'thinking' the reasons behind their actions - which seemed a lazy way of providing depth of character. No matter though, this was a really fun and engaging read and one I would definately pass on.
#16
9987 - Nik Jones
Yet another tale of a loner in a Northern town. This screams first novel through the 'quirky' storyline and moments where you can't tell if the main character is dreaming or living in a real life horror. It just didn't seem real. Too shlocky and silly. I couldn't wait to put it down.
#17
Pillow Talk - Freya North
A freebie off cosmo. Something I read to take my mind off rubbish stuff going on in real life. It worked. Apparently you can meet a guy you fancied from school at an ice cream shop in Great Ayton 15 years later and have the ebst sex ever. Contains the worst sex scene I've ever read (and i've read a lot) but embarassing detail (ew) but it was quite sweet and not too sugary.
#18
The Crow Road - Iain Banks
I last read this when I was 16 when it semed exiting and shocking. Now at 29 I wasn't shocked, but impressed. This mystery disguised as a family saga is stuffed with (too many) characters, but overseen by Prentice, a uni student from a moneyed complicated family with lots of secrets. Engaging, funny and endearing. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #13 |
[Jun. 4th, 2009|10:57 am] |
by David Peace (Author)
Wow. Just wow.
I tried to watch Red Riding when it was on Channel 4 and got lost in the gloom and switched off. I need to watch it after reading this.
Billed as a crime story but so much more - the whole book reeks of the time with references to tv and news of the time, but also physical descriptions of damp harsh winters and the desolation of the time.
Edward Dunford is a flawed main character - a journalist seeking truth after a series of hideous child murders - and the people he deals with are terrifying in their ghoulish realness.
I couldn't put this down and am already looking for the next in the quartet. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #12 |
[Jun. 4th, 2009|10:53 am] |
by Helen Sandler(Editor)
i love short stories, but sometimes short story colections can be a bit, meh.
This one is, thankfully, an awesome collection of intresting, strange, funny, sad and clever snippets of an array of believable characters.
Also, one of my favourite writers, Louise Tondeur appears here, bringing some magic.
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #11 |
[May. 6th, 2009|06:26 pm] |
Out Stealing Horses
By Per Petterson
"In 1948, when he is fifteen, Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. The events - the accidental death of a child, his best friend's feelings of guilt and eventual disappearance, his father's decision to leave the family for another woman - will change his life forever. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon's sudden breakdown. The tragedy which lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys' families gradually to fall apart. As a 67-year-old man, and following the death of his wife, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories of that year flooding back, and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone. "
This made me want to see Norway. Beautiful intricate descriptions of landscape replace in depth characterisation. It's a simple book, which unfolds subtly and is quite beautiful. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #10 |
[May. 6th, 2009|06:16 pm] |
Let the Right One in
by John Ajvide Lindqvist
"Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood. John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire legend, a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty."
This knocked me off my feet. I'm not a fan of vampire films and books. i mean i'll read em and watch em but not get over excited. This was just ace though. i was completely engrossed -by the depiction of being a teenage loner and finding someone who could be your new best friend -and then grossed out - gory killings plus acid on face description and a sinister paedophile character.
I watched the film just before I finished the book and although i loved the look and feel of the film, there were too many subplots left out which worked well in the book, and although I could have done without the explanation of Eli's past in the book (it seemed surplus and gratuitous) this is a book I would push upon anyone looking for something dark and different. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #8 + #9 |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|07:57 am] |
#8
Gods Own Country
By Ross Raisin
I didn't like this at first. Like a low-grade Wasp Factory. Psycho teen who's a bit odd doing starnge things in the country. Eventually I was sucked in, by the descriptions of Yorkshire and the madness lurking behind facades. I wanted more gore at the end, but was suprised by how much this dragged me into liking it.
#9
The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets
By Sophie Hannah
The first story in this, about a strange woman appearing inside a families photographs was creepy, tense, strange and intriguing. I loved it. Sadly the rest of the stories didn't quite match up and I w as left feeling rather let down. |
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| 50 books in a year 2009 - #7 |
[Mar. 27th, 2009|02:32 pm] |
Maynard and Jennica
By Rudolph Delson
This just DIDN'T live up to the blurb.
A vast array of characters pipe up every few pages, wittering on about their self-involved lives. You get the feeling it's all leading somewhere, then the two main characters meet and, nothing. There is no excitement or revelation or thrill - all of which come with the start of a new relationship - and the story just ambles along, past September 11th, break ups, make ups, some lovely descriptions of NYC and cats.
It's not the worst book I've read and it's quite nicely written but it just didn't make me feel anything other than 'meh',
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