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Mar 2020
7:31am, 23 Mar 2020
34,431 posts
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LindsD
So did I! 
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Mar 2020
9:05am, 23 Mar 2020
504 posts
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Peregrinator
I gave it 8/10 - must develop a consistent scoring grid. I was keen to get back to reading it, to find out what happened, which has to be a recommendation. For me, the research and didactic are what made it an engaging read, even if ultimately I rejected what I took to be the underlying idea.
There's probably a whole area of study of families in literature. These four were so varied and I didn't get much feeling of why they would react so differently. Or what part the Jewish background played, which I thought the author could have worked in more.
Bit worried about using the phrase Deus ex Machina, but if there's flack, I'll hide behind McG.
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Mar 2020
9:07am, 23 Mar 2020
34,439 posts
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LindsD
In a way I agree, Pere. I didn't think the story needed Eddie Irishcop. He was too much of a coincidence.
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Mar 2020
9:39am, 23 Mar 2020
16,756 posts
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Serendippily
I would accept Simon is derivative, K (forgotten name already) unlikely and inconsistent, D dull and inconsistent, V unlikely. But relationships between them - Vera and Ruby, Ruby and Daniel, K and S - were enough. Bits of fathers and sons were stereotyped. Bits were unlikely. But there were some cracking powerful scenes in a short book and plenty to think on. And this was a good easy read. And I have room for both and glad of them both.
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Mar 2020
9:40am, 23 Mar 2020
16,757 posts
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Serendippily
But it’s still a good review
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Mar 2020
9:49am, 23 Mar 2020
34,444 posts
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LindsD
I agree with all. And I'm so glad to have read it.
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Mar 2020
10:54pm, 24 Mar 2020
507 posts
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Peregrinator
Now feel I should reread some Armistead Maupin to see how it appears in a different world. How does one decide between revisiting and moving on? Maybe I could get Offspring1 to read and comment - he's about the age I was.
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Mar 2020
10:55pm, 24 Mar 2020
34,499 posts
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LindsD
I've been thinking similarly, but I really don't want to ruin it.
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Mar 2020
11:02pm, 24 Mar 2020
46,572 posts
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Diogenes
I read Maupin’s tales of the city series back in the early 90s. I felt a bit meh about them, but I might not have been best placed to appreciate the genre. It felt to me like the subject was more than the telling. It all felt a bit soap opera. Probably unfair.
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Apr 2020
10:36am, 9 Apr 2020
19,584 posts
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Columba
Finished last night, rather to my relief. It wasn't gripping me, and a number of things about it were annoying me.
The style: short, breathless sentences, frequent new paragraphs. True, this may have been only (or mainly) in the Simon and Klara sections, and intended to reflect their style of living.
The book seemed to be trying to do too many things at once. It's the story of a family. It's an exploration of the effect that "knowing" a future event may have on the way one chooses to live one's life. It's an account of a gay man's life at the time AIDS was just appearing over the horizon. It's the account of the life of someone with OCD. It touches on the cruelty involved in animal experimentation (reminding me of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves).
And there were several instances - I can only think of one of them now - where the author airily describes an event which if you try to visualise it you realise is impossible. The one I remember is when someone (I think it's Daniel) is driving, and he's very upset, and he pulls over to the side of the road, and parks, and puts his head down on his knees - wait a moment, he does what? How can you put your head on your knees when you're sitting in the driver's seat?
Back to p 1 of this thread, to see what everyone else thought.
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