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Feb 2018
10:56pm, 6 Feb 2018
12,223 posts
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Chrisull
It's not to say I didn't like it...
McG - Ali Smith achieved very similar with "How to be both", which I adored, and I refuse to believe the order I read it in, could be bettered by reading it the other way around but others insist. I'm not sure I ever finished the unfortunates, because I made the mistake of getting the chapters out of the box all at once, and they got shuffled and I'm not sure which I had read and which I hadn't...
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Feb 2018
10:59pm, 6 Feb 2018
32,991 posts
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McGoohan
I did enjoy H2BB but now I've read it, I doubt I'd be able to read it the other way round without it seeming 'wrong'
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Feb 2018
8:13am, 7 Feb 2018
26,357 posts
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Diogenes
Agreed on H2BB, I read the modern part first.
There are two fixed points in The Unfortunates, the first and last chapters. The others describe simultaneous events from different points of view, or with an alternative focus. As with H2BB we tend to favour the version we encounter first.
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Feb 2018
8:26am, 7 Feb 2018
32,992 posts
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McGoohan
I think I'll have to read The Unfortunates. It sounds like an intriguing experiment.
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Feb 2018
8:27am, 7 Feb 2018
21,516 posts
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LindsD
I didn't like H2BB but I think it's me, not the book.
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Feb 2018
9:55am, 7 Feb 2018
5,818 posts
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Serendippily
It’s rarely you Linds 
Invisible cities you can read in various ways. I enjoyed it as a student. Blimmin hated it on the reread.
Enjoyed discussion around this book as much as any it’s been great. Springwatch spotted a grey shrike the other day and I am still delighted to find the word incunable exists
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Feb 2018
1:35pm, 7 Feb 2018
12,230 posts
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Chrisull
Started reading the unfortunates again, after the opening fixed chapter, the first chapter I picked was a real gut puncher, about buying house they knew they'd barely get a chance to live in. Great opening, really couldn't have told that it wasn't a normal fixed order book so far.
H2BB.... of course I had the modern part second, it doesn't work any other way ? I think it gives an extended payoff.
Invisible cities... Calvino? Need to be in the right mood for him. Ditto for Krasznahorkai, but definitely excellent when willing to persevere, but other times downright irritating.
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Feb 2018
5:55pm, 7 Feb 2018
14,856 posts
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Columba
On the basis of Christie Malry I didn't want to read anything else by the same author. But reading what some of you have said, maybe I should.
But Ulysses first. And Tristram Shandy.
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Apr 2019
8:35pm, 19 Apr 2019
32,681 posts
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Night-owl
Finished it. Bit late to it.
Liked McGoohans review
Didn't like the mass murderers made me uncomfortable.
It was ok probably in the minority just not my thing.
Though made me sad at the end felt a bit tearful
Probably give it a 7
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Apr 2019
9:09pm, 19 Apr 2019
2,085 posts
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DazTheSlug
owlie - most people gave it 7 so not in minority
I recently read The Unfortunates which I thought was excellent, maybe 8.5
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