Or rather we don't, if 'talking about Kevin' means reading '400 pages of throughly disagreeable prose'. I finished this last night, having ploughed through it in about 3 days just to get the misery over with.
It was particularly weakly plotted, which I suppose was my main problem with it. There didn't seem to be any point to it; whilst I'd heard that it was an interesting look at being a woman and not wanting children, the fact that the main character gave birth to the MOST EVIL CHILDE EVER (also, later, a flaxen-haired waif who never does anything wrong) doesn't seem to say anything other than 'Motherhood will be fine! as long as you don't give birth to the MOST EVIL CHILDE EVER'.
Anyone here read it? Do you share my hate? Or can you tell me why I'm wrong? (about this book)
[ 21.10.2005, 08:03: Message edited by: Jack Vincennes ]
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
Thankfully, no. I was alerted to it by a review on another board (it may even have been yours) and able to consign it to the Sanctimonious, Manipulative Shite pile, along with The Lovely Bones.
May I humbly suggest Hotel World by Ali Smith as a beautifully written but depressing antidote, narrated, at least partly by someone dead. I've come pretty late to it, I must admit and haven't finished yet. Six Feet Under, the recent obituary of someone I know and the sudden urge to read Dylan Thomas have filled my mind with death, so perhaps I'm not the best person to recommend anything....
Sorry if this isn't a very good response. Not wanting to leave the thread unanswered amidst the chat elsewhere. etc.
Posted by Jack Vincennes (Member # 814) on :
Sanctimonious is right, manipulative... it seem to be trying really hard to achieve, but after reading 150 pages about all the nasty things Kevin does, you pretty much know the ending so it's about as manipulative as an Argos catalogue. I don't know if it's meant to be a striking comment on the humdrum nature of evil, but it works all too well if so, I got a kind of 'oh look, something nice has happened, now Kevin's going to break it / kill it / break it then kill it' attitude.
Thanks for your recommendation, anyway -this is going to sound silly, but Kevin has actually put me off literary fiction, I stormed out of the house this morning muttering about not reading anything but PG Wodehouse for the rest of the year. I'll look out the Ali Smith on Monday.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jack Vincennes: it's about as manipulative as an Argos catalogue.
Does this mean very manipulative, or not very manipulative at all? In context it seems you mean not very manipulative, but isn't the Argos catalogue all about goading you into spending your money on garbage - presenting image after image of people enjoying low-quality goods, in a bid to shove you towards believing that buying the same things will make you equally happy? Perhaps WNTTAK is equally as distastefully manipulative?
I know three people who have read this book and really liked it. At least one of those three isn't a total retard - the other two are actually George the Robot's wife Mindy, and MonkeySusan's lifepartner Graham, which should tell you all you need to know about their taste. But, Ocktavia liked it and she occasionally demonstrates some nous about these things.
Anyway. Those comments seem to have confirmed my worst suspiscions about this book, so I definitely won't read it now.
Posted by Jack Vincennes (Member # 814) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis:
quote:Originally posted by Jack Vincennes: it's about as manipulative as an Argos catalogue.
Does this mean very manipulative, or not very manipulative at all? In context it seems you mean not very manipulative, but isn't the Argos catalogue all about goading you into spending your money on garbage - presenting image after image of people enjoying low-quality goods, in a bid to shove you towards believing that buying the same things will make you equally happy?
Not very manipulative was indeed what I meant, although now you call me on it I realise as an analogy it sounds a lot less weak in my head than in writing. Basically I was imagining that for the first wee while, reading the Argos catalogue would have the effect you described, the intense desire to buy cheap stuff. This represents the first 30 pages or so during which you think you might be reading a good book. The next hundred pages (of WNTTAK) are the realisation that whatever is going to happen when you turn the page (of the Argos catalogue), you know it's just going to be more cheap stuff, there's going to be pictures and inexpertly written advertising copy and that will be it, and by the end you can't tell the difference between the rings with 'MUM' written on them and the nasal hair trimmers, so great is your weariness.
Incidentally, the fact that so many people whose opinion I trust like this makes it far worse; I was expecting to enjoy it so much, the disappointment was even greater than it might have been.