... and another.
I was looking forward to reading this book. I asked to review it. And I argued with myself about how I was reacting to it. But in the end, I just couldn't give it a good review. Perhaps my Romish sensibility is just hopelessly out of sympathy with Robinson's Calvinism. I found myself not wanting to spend any time with her characters. The Rev. Boughton in particular I found hectoring and tactless. In a way, I suppose, it's a compliment to Robinson that I reacted so viscerally to her imagined people. But I also found the book repetitious and the attention to the minutiae of housekeeping tiresome. Ah well.
Looks like we had somewhat similar responses to "Home":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/books/1149136,SHO-Books-robinson07.article
Thanks for sending that along, Mark. I just linked to it from the main post.
ReplyDeleteTrying not to read your review, Frankster, as I'm now reading it for an Inky review (won't run until Sept. 28 as turmoil in Features means I only just got the book). But I really didn't like "Gilead" anywhere near as much as "Housekeeping," and if this is its sequel (Gilead's), my lack of enthusiasm may continue. On verra.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Susan, I read no reviews of it until I finished mine.
ReplyDeleteOh, Susan, what turmoil in features might that be?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Frank!
ReplyDeleteLet's see: A backfield editor got fired last week (I won't say who in this public forum); Mike Schaffer, being the good soldier that he is, is moving to SPSS to helm the Pa. desk; John Timpane (our mutually adored JT) is becoming books & so forth editor for the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteI'm leaving in thirty minutes for my last shift at the Inky and this time I've no expectations of being called back. Word is the ax will fall on a dozen more people tomorrow, many of them from the copy desk.
We drank up all the cases of champagne on this Titanic, and now at last I do think it's sinking....
I knew a good bit of that - though I promised to keep my lips sealed until it became public. Worrisome about the ax falling tomorrow, though. I was hoping they'd wait a bit and remove some dead management first.
ReplyDeleteBoth reviews read well; and, no, Frank, on the evidence that you cite, I doubt it has to do with your Romish sensibility; I think, given Mark's reservations, it has much more to do with literature that's less that what it purports to be being promoted for no other reason than it was inked by someone who earned the Pulitzer.
ReplyDeleteIt takes guts, acuity, and a stellar degree of aesthetic integrity to go against "received wisdom," I guess; but, you both wisely support your chagrin and impatience with examples in reviews that a rookie, er, newbie, or two would do wll to study to discover how it ought to be done (with class, elegance, and then smartsome). So, yeah; thanks Mark, thanks Frank.