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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
'Does Jane have any medical problems?' I call down.
'A lamp hit her on the head,' my brother says.
'Anything else?'
'She takes a fuck of a lot of vitamins,' says George.
Thus opens AM Homes's award-winning panorama of modern American life. A country of sometimes well-meaning but mostly ignorant, vapid people to whom life, with all its unpleasantness happens and they have to go to therapy in order to "process" it. Those who aren't well-meaning are mentally ill, criminally insane or arse-covering professionals of all stamps who seem to have no humanising characteristics other than a banality that keeps them from being properly evil. Homes paints these characters - the inept psychiatrist, money-grubbing healthcare professionals (a mental institution that becomes a conference centre almost overnight as it's more profitable) and the headteacher who quickly agrees a payoff and confidentiality clauses when a vulnerable girl gets into a lesbian relationship with one of her staff.
The opening lines come from the scene setter, when history lecturer and amateur Nixon biographer Harry Silver is caught in bed with his brother George's wife. George then proceeds to bludgeon her to death with a table lamp, thereafter waiting quietly while a shocked Harry phones the authorities, to be taken away. He spends the rest of the novel in various forms of institutional care whilst we examine the effect of the crime, and the factors leading up to it, including his propensity for sudden violent acts which have already left an unrelated child orphaned. Some lives you just shouldn't get out of bed.
At times May We Be Forgiven gets a little too like a development proposal or the plot synopsis for a box set - a very high quality box set from an HBO or Showtime series perhaps but it has that odd sen of having been written with televisation in mind. This afflicts much modern American writing, and doesn't necessarily make it bad, although there are sections where the plot droops a bit or there's just a little too much in the way of sub-plot having been introduced. It's rather like one or two mid-season episode of Dexter or The West Wing, where the showrunners don't want to peak in story arc terms too early, so you get the odd 'filler' episode - often pleasant enough though when you get to the end and realise it's moved nothing forward in dramatic terms you feel a bit cheated.
You can't fault Homes for a richness of invention though and Harry is an enjoyable anti-hero, with his sex and Nixon manias running concurrently, his burgeoning relationships with the children in his family, and worries that the flaws that made his brother kill are present in him. It curves neatly back on itself when, a year on, having gone through what should be redemptive experiences with Nate, Ricardo, Ashley and the village in South Africa, he finds himself back at the old house imagining sex with his dead sister-in-law. May we indeed be forgiven.
'A lamp hit her on the head,' my brother says.
'Anything else?'
'She takes a fuck of a lot of vitamins,' says George.
Thus opens AM Homes's award-winning panorama of modern American life. A country of sometimes well-meaning but mostly ignorant, vapid people to whom life, with all its unpleasantness happens and they have to go to therapy in order to "process" it. Those who aren't well-meaning are mentally ill, criminally insane or arse-covering professionals of all stamps who seem to have no humanising characteristics other than a banality that keeps them from being properly evil. Homes paints these characters - the inept psychiatrist, money-grubbing healthcare professionals (a mental institution that becomes a conference centre almost overnight as it's more profitable) and the headteacher who quickly agrees a payoff and confidentiality clauses when a vulnerable girl gets into a lesbian relationship with one of her staff.
The opening lines come from the scene setter, when history lecturer and amateur Nixon biographer Harry Silver is caught in bed with his brother George's wife. George then proceeds to bludgeon her to death with a table lamp, thereafter waiting quietly while a shocked Harry phones the authorities, to be taken away. He spends the rest of the novel in various forms of institutional care whilst we examine the effect of the crime, and the factors leading up to it, including his propensity for sudden violent acts which have already left an unrelated child orphaned. Some lives you just shouldn't get out of bed.
At times May We Be Forgiven gets a little too like a development proposal or the plot synopsis for a box set - a very high quality box set from an HBO or Showtime series perhaps but it has that odd sen of having been written with televisation in mind. This afflicts much modern American writing, and doesn't necessarily make it bad, although there are sections where the plot droops a bit or there's just a little too much in the way of sub-plot having been introduced. It's rather like one or two mid-season episode of Dexter or The West Wing, where the showrunners don't want to peak in story arc terms too early, so you get the odd 'filler' episode - often pleasant enough though when you get to the end and realise it's moved nothing forward in dramatic terms you feel a bit cheated.
You can't fault Homes for a richness of invention though and Harry is an enjoyable anti-hero, with his sex and Nixon manias running concurrently, his burgeoning relationships with the children in his family, and worries that the flaws that made his brother kill are present in him. It curves neatly back on itself when, a year on, having gone through what should be redemptive experiences with Nate, Ricardo, Ashley and the village in South Africa, he finds himself back at the old house imagining sex with his dead sister-in-law. May we indeed be forgiven.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was the most insane book I have ever read. There was a moment when I paused and said aloud, "I love this book!" But at other times I was bored, incredulous, and/or confused.
Thoroughly readable and often hysterical, the book skates through nearly every problem a person could have over the course of a year-- and many that one really couldn't have.
Other reviews mention the utter incredulity that things like Israeli operatives breed, but my confusion and skepticism came from the smaller things: when Harry's bank cards are cancelled, there are no repercussions; he's back to spending money wildly only a few pages later. His empty car crashes while he's having a stroke, and no mention of repairs, insurance, or cost is made. Again, within a few pages he's driving around once more.
The book seemed to gloss over big events like "here's a funny/strange thing that happens now!" while leaving interesting characters in the dust-- I wanted more George!
My biggest issue, however, was the fact that the apparent unreliability of the narrator went completely unaddressed. After his schizophrenic episode in the bathroom, a number of conversations in which other characters blatantly refute Harry's telling of the story, and several flat out insane comments about his life, I was expecting an ending in which Harry wakes up in a mental hospital, with George as his alter ego and all the other characters fictions of his wild, drugged imagination.
This is how insane this book is. Nevertheless, it held my attention. But I would have to say I was ultimately unfulfilled.
Thoroughly readable and often hysterical, the book skates through nearly every problem a person could have over the course of a year-- and many that one really couldn't have.
Other reviews mention the utter incredulity that things like Israeli operatives breed, but my confusion and skepticism came from the smaller things: when Harry's bank cards are cancelled, there are no repercussions; he's back to spending money wildly only a few pages later. His empty car crashes while he's having a stroke, and no mention of repairs, insurance, or cost is made. Again, within a few pages he's driving around once more.
The book seemed to gloss over big events like "here's a funny/strange thing that happens now!" while leaving interesting characters in the dust-- I wanted more George!
My biggest issue, however, was the fact that the apparent unreliability of the narrator went completely unaddressed. After his schizophrenic episode in the bathroom, a number of conversations in which other characters blatantly refute Harry's telling of the story, and several flat out insane comments about his life, I was expecting an ending in which Harry wakes up in a mental hospital, with George as his alter ego and all the other characters fictions of his wild, drugged imagination.
This is how insane this book is. Nevertheless, it held my attention. But I would have to say I was ultimately unfulfilled.
What a wild ride! At times very humorous, a very times a bit over the edge, I still loved every minute- and found myself weeping more than once in its world of human possibility. Major love.
I really loved this book. It's really funny, poignant and by the end you're really rooting for this guy and his family who all start out so dysfunctional but somehow over time open themselves up to a greater understanding of themselves, each other, and what really matters.
This makes it sound serious but it's actually hysterical. A great read and highly recommended!
This makes it sound serious but it's actually hysterical. A great read and highly recommended!
The first 40 pages of this book are sheer genius. Riveting, amazing writing. Then it just died and wandered for 300 pages with a horrid unbelievable main character. I'm going to skim the last 160 pages and claim it as read.
don't know how to describe this - crazy, depressing, funny, offensive, heartwrenching, ridiculous, totally believable, despicable, lovable, dark
but i really enjoyed it and am so glad i read it
but i really enjoyed it and am so glad i read it
Reading this book was like listening to someone telling a really, REALLY long story... full of extra and unnecessary details... and you start tuning in and out... and keep wondering, "This is still going on? Why am I still here? When will this end?"
I mean, this story is very read-able, although in a totally monotone, apathetic way.
Honestly? I got up to page 369, and then thought, "If this book had ended 194 pages ago, I may have enjoyed it."
I mean, this story is very read-able, although in a totally monotone, apathetic way.
Honestly? I got up to page 369, and then thought, "If this book had ended 194 pages ago, I may have enjoyed it."
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
