Scan barcode
blairfrank's review
3.0
I've struggled with reading this text. I started this in college for a class and never finished it. I've actually attempted to read this novel twice prior to finishing it today. It's not an easy read. I liked it because it was different, but I also didn't like it because it was so outside my realm of understanding the post-modern genre. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the majority of the story. I think it will be awhile before I attempt a post-modern novel again.
lizawall's review
in theory, i really love this book, but actually reading it didn't do that much for me. there was a kind of gooey 90s vibe i liked but something about reading tons about women's desire for men just really turns me off. a little like chris kraus that way? and even (secretest) kathy acker. i think there is probably a form of misogyny in this that i should work on. more recent dodie bellamy i like more with my feelings.
jackieeh's review against another edition
3.75
A delightfully singular book: moving and horny and literary and sometimes incomprehensible.
slothful_1592's review against another edition
4.5
“I may not have liked what he did but he made me feel alive, over-burdened with random meaning.”
smutty, exciting, exhilarating, vulgar: loved it—a compulsive diary writer (Dodie Bellamy the author) bearing out, performing, nauseating herself & esp. her sex life, thru the detour of Mina Harker & the addressees, as it’s in epistolary form, about her life, marriage to Kevin Killian, relationships with a bunch of guys & friends—but really there’s no confessing or secrets or depth or psychologies to plumb and analyse, instead it is sheer writing & sex in excessive, surplus detail, what it is is precisely just that, and the conscious literary representation of that performance—a diary of her fucks, of her wanting to fuck, of the various ways, people, all mixed with horror movie images: divine! like watching an 80’s gore fest with a loquacious companion fantasisising herself into all the scenes, delirious & numbing at times tbh but i enjoyed the experience (favourites were whole passages on godzilla and argento films)—tho some of the letters are to Sam D’Allesandro who died of AIDS in the late 80’s and those letters sometimes, esp. toward the end became sad & poignant tho the irreverent verve of the prose was still there
ateliertovar's review
challenging
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
kylefwill's review against another edition
4.0
"Writing versus life—is the one flight, the other hot pursuit? I don't remember."
More...