#also dont suggest palahniuk ellis burroughs or king thanks! terrible!

[harriertail]

Weird reading roundup

Gravitys Rainbow - ngl i gave up. i adored the writing style- the sidetracking stories, the background, the general insanity and interconnected world- from Argentina to Southwest Africa to Russia to England. I get the whole plot is about this yank who’s dick is connected to nazi rockets and everytime he shags a girl london gets bombed but wtf was that second half? I wanted to enjoy it, but it felt like less of a story/novel and more of a series of characters/events designed to either shock or confuse (much like Less than Zero, Guts, or Infinite Jest though). When this book does moral grandstanding or political views it does it really well, and again the prose is fantastic. A lot of the “chapters” (long segments within each bigger part) could stand on their own as short stories. A shame about all the… that…

Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead - suggested by the lovely pigeocore. Took a while to get into the style and the weird Capitalisations but it really sets this weird, not-right tone. Unhinged in a good way. A murder mystery of the best kind. I hated every character but the narrator. 

Apricots - this was.... weird. the style is very ‘basic’ and kinda jumpy. the dialogue is kinda weird and unnatural. The news clippings were really nice in setting the tone but the random non Forrest chapter was fucking weird. I think the contrast between Grenada and Lebanon rlly should have been played up. This def is one of those non fiction books that are basically the authors memoirs (ala Slaughterhouse Five) so i’ll let it slide on feeling disjointed. It gets a little preachy with the whole “i gave my life for this” and gives speeches in parts but i think the ending justified it. Kinda bleak- again, I tend to view nonfiction war novels by former service members as half fiction, half real and inspired by their experiences which softens me to certain things I’d usually not like in other genres. I dont like ranking things numerically so i will describe this as chain restaurant burgers, its not brilliant stuff but for a weekday trip out itll do. I did like it, but i dont think other people would.

The Road - i like McCarthy usually (even if i gave up on Child of God) and i love his style but again. What? I adored the writing style; the jumpiness of it, the craftsmanship of it. Something about it just felt off to me

Of Love and Other Demons - when i understand what this book was about I’ll let you know. I like Marquez so I’m bias buttt this was fucking unhinged, like straight off the bat. setting was fantastic. no fucking clue about the rest.

Up next: 100 Years of Solitude (Marquez) The Antipeople (Tansi), Dreambaby (McAllister), and please feel free to suggest any novels that made you go ‘what the fuck?’ (in a good way!!!)