(Untitled)

[wwidsith]

Nicola Barker, Darkmans

From Chaucer to Dickens, the county of Kent has always had a surprisingly prominent place in English literature. As a Kent boy myself, it's good to note that right now the area is having something of an unremarked-upon literary renaissance, centred, of all the unlikely places, on the run-down wasteland that is East Kent.

Comments

[ledh]

I'm stuck somewhere near page 100... I keep laying it aside for other, simpler books. My native tongue isn't English and this prose is really difficult to read for me, though I easily read most other books. I agree with what you said for as far as I got into it and plan to finish it.

[wwidsith]

Hey, let me know how you get on if you keep going! I think it's worth the effort. Plus, at least you'll pick up plenty of south-east English slang!

[ledh]

it's a bit difficult to understand because of that too... :(

[wwidsith]

Ah, I haven't got to that one yet...it's on my list though.

[zenithblue]

This sounds fascinating. I'll have to pick this one up.

[wwidsith]

It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize over here, and I thought it was better than the book which won it (Anne Enright's The Gathering)

[egotospend]

Yeah, but I still preferred The Reluctant Fundamentalist (and I don't think the Sidha book ever made it over to this side of the pond.)

[myshkin]

After reading it, I had hopes it would actually win the Booker. I fully agree that there a few flaws in this book, but, Barker tried so much out when she was creating this, I couldn't help but appreciate it as a fabulous near-miss of a masterpiece. As soon as I finished reading it, I went out and bought my own copy.