mono_vox (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mono_vox) wrote,@ 2008-05-05 17:35:00 |
|
50 books in 1 year - 2008 - # 12
Submarine
Joe Dunthorne
Submarine
Joe Dunthorne
When I got this out of the library, the librarian opened it to stamp it and said, ‘ oh I tried reading this and I hated it.’ I got it out still as the cover made me interested (I LOVE greyhounds and scribbly drawing – simple pleasures eh?).
I’m glad I didn’t take any notice, as I loved this.
It starts promisingly enough, narrated by the strange Oli- a teenager that has all the markings of an awkward teenager without actually being unconfident. His pamphlet for fat girl who him and his mate bullied made me laugh (‘don’t be yourself, people will like you then’) as did his observation son his parents and his new girlfriend.
In the middle of the book, he decides to save his parents marriage after his mum takes up hippy hobbies with a sandal wearer (shudders) named Graham. His ideas about life w re just the right side of precocious, and his descriptions of sex and such things disgustingly teenage and biological.
There were a couple of things I’d like to have changed – his supposed best mate Chips barely features, the reintroduction of his fat foe made an obvious karmic point, and the reference to Adrian Mole was a wee bit po-mo for my liking – but otherwise, I was pleased that such an ace cover lived up to my expectations.
