“One Day” by David Nicholls
Not as good as “Starter for Ten”.
“A Hatful of Sky” by Terry Pratchett
Unchallenging. Readable children’s fiction by the man who brought you Discworld.
“Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen
I did not like “The Corrections” very much but I was surprised to find myself really liking this. And there’s nothing like really enjoying a book about middle class middle aged angst and realising that it runs to over 500 pages. Do they not have editors in North America?
I’m reading Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I got two others of his, “When We Were Orphans” and “Never Let me Go” — I found out about him on your book thingie by Library Thing. I gotta stop looking at that thing — It’s getting expensive!
Agreed about the David Nicholls. But it’s a good concept and concept sells! I also enjoyed Freedom, but found it overly long. For my money, the environment section could have been halved.
WOL – do you have a decent library near you? Saves on money and bookshelf space…
I didn’t really like Starter for Ten. I just can’t find humiliation (even self-humiliation) funny. Too close to home, probably. And did you mean the Corrections? I’d love to read Franzen’s take on a Dublin-based funk band, it might cheer the miserable bugger up a bit.
I have a decent library, but not a really good English one – perils of living in the provinces…
I read Starter for Ten after I’d been on University Challenge myself (one of my stranger experiences, it must be said), which added to the amusment. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it much otherwise, as I also find humiliation very hard to read.
One Day and Freedom I both heard as audiobooks in daily 30-minutes installments on north German radio. I’m not terribly patient with the format, and fussy about translations, so was genuinely surprised to find I enjoyed them both. I’m fairly sure Freedom benefited from the slight abridgement required!
WOL, I do like him and his stuff is quite weirdly different isn’t it? They’re making a film out of “Never Let Me Go” and I am quite looking forward to going and being slightly sniffy about it.
Charlotte, does concept really sell? Yes, it was a very clever concept but execution was pretty hit and miss, I thought. I didn’t mind the environmentatal stuff so much but I found Lalitha a pretty unconvincing character. What I really enjoyed was the huge affection for Minnesota and the sense of place that the novel conveyed.
TM, yes, of course, you are right it’s “The Corrections” – have amended – you can see how much I have retained of this seminal text. In fact I was chatting about it with a colleague the other day and all either of us could bring to mind, other than the fact that neither of us liked it, was the scene with the rutabaga.
Lauren, that is mildly hilarious. I find humiliation strangely compelling and cringemakingly funny – perhaps I should see a therapist about that. Pretty sure that you are right about Freedom!