What really annoyed me was the use of pidgin English to demonstrate the Ukrainian accents, so irritating. I did laugh at Emmanuel's misunderstanding of Marta's name as Martyr!
Yup - I felt the characters were"infantilsed" by the accented thoughts.
The induction of Emmanuel into"canal knowledge" was a cheap shot, he was a charmingly naive, but not stupid.
First of all, a question for PJ: I really didn’t understand your reference to "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". I assume you are relating to the work by Solzhenitsyn and not some other version. “One day…” is about life in the Soviet Gulags during the Time of Terror under the tyrant Stalin. It’s not even about the worst of life in those times either. I cannot see the comparison. Perhaps that should be the next book we read.
Anyway, back to the book. I used to always finish a book, regardless of what I thought of it as I always saw books as almost sacred. I’ve since realised that there are too many excellent books out there to waste time on the less good. So at about page 100, a third of the way through the book, I stopped. I hadn’t found the humour, the characters were so stereotypical to the point of being two-dimensional (if they were to film it they would have to do so à la Mr Benn). As for the dog stuff………I got bored.
I didn’t like “Tractors” either so this didn’t have a good start.
Don’t think I’m being too negative because I am more than willing to try new authors – some I will like, some I won’t but overall it should be a worthwhile experience.
First of all, a question for PJ: I really didn’t understand your reference to "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". I assume you are relating to the work by Solzhenitsyn and not some other version. “One day…” is about life in the Soviet Gulags during the Time of Terror under the tyrant Stalin. It’s not even about the worst of life in those times either. I cannot see the comparison.
Sorry Tuff I was overstating the case in the ref. to Solzhenitsyn.
I saw a tiny similarity in the drudgery of life, and the manner in which the diadvantaged seize any chance to trade with,bullly or exploit others.
A rod and plastic bucket was a means of gaining rental fees, food or a commodity to sell - it was also a tool for building a friendship.
In the gulag each sought to gain the slightest advantage to improve their lot.
fwiw the final dark tower book i'm reading at the moment is awesome. The only book that wasn't as good as the others was Wizard and the Glass, rest were awesome :D
I'm not having a fantastic time with this either - heavy going in fact.
The difficulty for me is that it seems to be a comedy of foreboding (yes, I have just invented a new genre there). Some elements suggest there is going to be a stream of humour, but you always feel that something nasty will come along.
My other difficulty is that the character seem quite loosely drawn - so I really don't have a view of who they are, and as a result, I don't really care.
In comparison, Tractors was broad comedy, here I have the feeling it will all end badly. I'll try and stick with it. The fact it is dedicated to the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers doesn't exactly suggest unrestrained merriment, I suppose.
* I wish I was reading Mark Haddon's Spot of Bother for the first time *
Shall we have a bash at one of Greg's SciFi books next month - the only book of that genre I have read is Dune so I could do with having my horizons expanded.
