(no subject)
23. A Late Divorce by A.B. Yehoshua
Karen gave me this book to read, and as I usually enjoy her selections, I was excited for this eponymous novel about an Israeli family. There was essentially one problem with it. One problem of mega-disaster proportions, in my mind. It is a stream-of-consciousness novel. Last time I read one of those I seriously contemplated traveling to California with the sole purpose of throttling Dave Eggers. Non-grammatical run-on sentences in prose BOTHER ME. I realize this is a New Age style, it illustrates the language of thought, conveys a certain poetry and rhythm. I'm just immune to it I guess. I live for the well-organized sentence. That aside, this is a character focused book, which I appreciate, and I did find most of the characters strikingly well drawn, particularly the seven year old boy, grandson of the divorcing couple. Each section is written from the point of view of a different character, all but one members of the family. There is even, surprisingly, a plot, which I followed along expectantly only to discover...that it is not resolved. and by not resolved I mean however the situation ends, it is only hinted at. the ending of the book felt really random to me, like just the ending of another section. I did not appreciate that at all. I like ambiguous endings, but not endings where some sort of direction is not even suggested. I think probably if i went back and cobbled together a lot of symbolism and characters melding into other characters, I could probably come up with something vaguely coherent, but it's not even worth it. and if I don't want to re-read it, ever, that really is the death knell.
Karen gave me this book to read, and as I usually enjoy her selections, I was excited for this eponymous novel about an Israeli family. There was essentially one problem with it. One problem of mega-disaster proportions, in my mind. It is a stream-of-consciousness novel. Last time I read one of those I seriously contemplated traveling to California with the sole purpose of throttling Dave Eggers. Non-grammatical run-on sentences in prose BOTHER ME. I realize this is a New Age style, it illustrates the language of thought, conveys a certain poetry and rhythm. I'm just immune to it I guess. I live for the well-organized sentence. That aside, this is a character focused book, which I appreciate, and I did find most of the characters strikingly well drawn, particularly the seven year old boy, grandson of the divorcing couple. Each section is written from the point of view of a different character, all but one members of the family. There is even, surprisingly, a plot, which I followed along expectantly only to discover...that it is not resolved. and by not resolved I mean however the situation ends, it is only hinted at. the ending of the book felt really random to me, like just the ending of another section. I did not appreciate that at all. I like ambiguous endings, but not endings where some sort of direction is not even suggested. I think probably if i went back and cobbled together a lot of symbolism and characters melding into other characters, I could probably come up with something vaguely coherent, but it's not even worth it. and if I don't want to re-read it, ever, that really is the death knell.