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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
Genius. Laugh out loud, great characterisation. I don't know how she does it.
DNF @ 77 / 365 pages.
I found the start of this book pretty engrossing and felt that it had quite a fun and funny feel to it. I thought it was about an eccentric family and how they navigate their relationships with one another. We get the perspective of the parents and two of the kids (both of whom were of adult age). Seemed like it would be a hit!
And then there were references to a third child, a disabled child, and I realised that that child (referenced as being an age at which a social worker was talking about them moving into a place of their own, so presumably 18+) was not given a POV in the same way as the other family members, which didn't sit right with me. And then the child started to be described and I just felt really uncomfortable with the descriptions. Idk, maybe I was reading too much into it, but the muting and infantilisation of the disabled adult and the playing into stereotypes of disabled people just didn't sit right with me and I decided to DNF.
I found the start of this book pretty engrossing and felt that it had quite a fun and funny feel to it. I thought it was about an eccentric family and how they navigate their relationships with one another. We get the perspective of the parents and two of the kids (both of whom were of adult age). Seemed like it would be a hit!
And then there were references to a third child, a disabled child, and I realised that that child (referenced as being an age at which a social worker was talking about them moving into a place of their own, so presumably 18+) was not given a POV in the same way as the other family members, which didn't sit right with me. And then the child started to be described and I just felt really uncomfortable with the descriptions. Idk, maybe I was reading too much into it, but the muting and infantilisation of the disabled adult and the playing into stereotypes of disabled people just didn't sit right with me and I decided to DNF.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
| The book is divided into several narrators who seem like they will eventually uncover a truth about their shared pasts as they wrestle with their post-commune lives. But no one really does and the characters aren't given enough time in their short chapters to be interesting in their own right. It was a relatively short and diverting read but ultimately unsatisfying.
Once again, Marina Lewycka brings us a hodge-podge cast of highly flawed characters and puts them into a slew of sticky situations for yet another wild romp of a story. You can read my review of this fabulously fun novel here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2015/05/26/a-socially-capital-laugh/
Having greatly enjoyed Lewycka’s previous literary efforts – Two Caravans, We Are All Made of Glue and the bestselling A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – I was incredibly excited to read her fourth novel, the quirkily titled Various Pets Alive & Dead.
The novel begins on the 1st of September 2008. Its opening focuses upon one of the book’s main protagonists, Serge Free, who is currently working in an office on the London Stock Exchange. He is leading his parents, overprotective Doro and quiet Marcus, to believe that he is still finishing his abandoned Maths PhD at Cambridge, rather than letting them know that he actually has rather a high paid job in the capital.
Serge, along with his sisters Clara, a primary school teacher on a Doncaster estate, and Down’s Syndrome sufferer Oolie-Anna, were brought up in a commune in the south of Yorkshire ‘with a floating population of adults, children and various pets alive and dead’. The Free siblings could not be less alike if they tried. Serge is incredibly clever if a little naïve at times, Clara is strait-laced and sensible, and Oolie-Anna strives for the independence which her disability has taken away.
The characters themselves are all incredibly likeable. They each have different quirks which immediately appeal to the reader. Lewycka focuses upon the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Frees, and describes such elements as how ‘Doro has a long list of things she disapproves of, including consumerism, racism, war, Botox, Jeremy Clarkson, and trans-fatty acids’. Even those who feature merely momentarily in the novel are well-developed. Every chapter of the novel essentially focuses on a different character. Each chapter heading is followed by a witty or amusing subtitle – for example, ‘Vandalism, Pee and the Doncaster Climate’, ‘The Carrot Rocket’ and ‘The Slowness of Plants’.
One of Lewycka’s strengths lies within the narrative voices which she creates. Various Pets Alive & Dead is strong from the outset and begins with a great opening sentence: ‘The whole world is deranged, though most people haven’t noticed yet’.
The novel is told from the third person perspective, often in the present tense. This gives the reader a real sense of comradeship with the incredibly believable characters which combine to create the novel. The narrative style itself is quite relaxed but is still incredibly attentive to detail. Irony, sarcasm and amusement are included throughout.
The dialogue throughout is well crafted and incredibly amusing in places. Lewycka captures the dialects of her characters perfectly. Whilst the reader is made aware that some of the characters speak with an accent – Eastern European Maroushka Malko, a colleague of Serge’s, and the youngest Free child, Oolie-Anna – their accents are subtle and not overdone.
Lewycka’s descriptions are fresh and original. One of the best examples of this is the way in which she describes aftershave smelling of ‘aniseed and benzene lighter fuel’. Lewycka puts series of words together so cleverly that even her descriptions of the more mundane aspects of life seem fresh and exciting. The novel, particularly aspects such as the stock market which is detailed throughout, has been very well researched. It is clear, even without reading the Acknowledgements page, that Lewycka has approached experts in the more intricate details of her novel.
Various Pets Alive & Dead is filled with a barrage of surprising twists and the reader can never quite predict where the story will end up. It is an incredibly absorbing novel. Lewycka has a wonderful knack of bringing her stories, and the characters within them, to life. Unlike many contemporary authors, she brings a vibrancy to the ordinary and offers fresh perspectives. She manages to produce books which are incredibly different from one another in terms of story and setting, but which all contain her trademark humour and polished writing style. Lewycka’s stylistically bold fourth novel is contemporary literature at its very best.
The novel begins on the 1st of September 2008. Its opening focuses upon one of the book’s main protagonists, Serge Free, who is currently working in an office on the London Stock Exchange. He is leading his parents, overprotective Doro and quiet Marcus, to believe that he is still finishing his abandoned Maths PhD at Cambridge, rather than letting them know that he actually has rather a high paid job in the capital.
Serge, along with his sisters Clara, a primary school teacher on a Doncaster estate, and Down’s Syndrome sufferer Oolie-Anna, were brought up in a commune in the south of Yorkshire ‘with a floating population of adults, children and various pets alive and dead’. The Free siblings could not be less alike if they tried. Serge is incredibly clever if a little naïve at times, Clara is strait-laced and sensible, and Oolie-Anna strives for the independence which her disability has taken away.
The characters themselves are all incredibly likeable. They each have different quirks which immediately appeal to the reader. Lewycka focuses upon the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Frees, and describes such elements as how ‘Doro has a long list of things she disapproves of, including consumerism, racism, war, Botox, Jeremy Clarkson, and trans-fatty acids’. Even those who feature merely momentarily in the novel are well-developed. Every chapter of the novel essentially focuses on a different character. Each chapter heading is followed by a witty or amusing subtitle – for example, ‘Vandalism, Pee and the Doncaster Climate’, ‘The Carrot Rocket’ and ‘The Slowness of Plants’.
One of Lewycka’s strengths lies within the narrative voices which she creates. Various Pets Alive & Dead is strong from the outset and begins with a great opening sentence: ‘The whole world is deranged, though most people haven’t noticed yet’.
The novel is told from the third person perspective, often in the present tense. This gives the reader a real sense of comradeship with the incredibly believable characters which combine to create the novel. The narrative style itself is quite relaxed but is still incredibly attentive to detail. Irony, sarcasm and amusement are included throughout.
The dialogue throughout is well crafted and incredibly amusing in places. Lewycka captures the dialects of her characters perfectly. Whilst the reader is made aware that some of the characters speak with an accent – Eastern European Maroushka Malko, a colleague of Serge’s, and the youngest Free child, Oolie-Anna – their accents are subtle and not overdone.
Lewycka’s descriptions are fresh and original. One of the best examples of this is the way in which she describes aftershave smelling of ‘aniseed and benzene lighter fuel’. Lewycka puts series of words together so cleverly that even her descriptions of the more mundane aspects of life seem fresh and exciting. The novel, particularly aspects such as the stock market which is detailed throughout, has been very well researched. It is clear, even without reading the Acknowledgements page, that Lewycka has approached experts in the more intricate details of her novel.
Various Pets Alive & Dead is filled with a barrage of surprising twists and the reader can never quite predict where the story will end up. It is an incredibly absorbing novel. Lewycka has a wonderful knack of bringing her stories, and the characters within them, to life. Unlike many contemporary authors, she brings a vibrancy to the ordinary and offers fresh perspectives. She manages to produce books which are incredibly different from one another in terms of story and setting, but which all contain her trademark humour and polished writing style. Lewycka’s stylistically bold fourth novel is contemporary literature at its very best.
This was the first Marina Lewycka novel that I read.
The book is made up of four points of view: Doro and Marco (although his voice is heard mostly in the epilogue), hippies of sorts who lived in a commune; their son, Serge, who's pretending to finish a Math PhD, but is working as an analyst in London, making lots of money playing on the stock market; his sister Clara, three years his senior and who works as a primary school teacher in Doncaster.
I enjoyed some of the musings on the life in the commune, the youth's idealism and strong convictions. I also liked the juxtaposition of the poorer, working class, Doncaster, with the rich, fancy London. Sometimes, Lewycka was bogged down in too many pedagogic details about trading shares and the financial markets - I was bored.
There were all sort of side plots and little mysteries. At times, I lost track, of who was who and how they were connected to the story.
For an easy read, this seemed much longer than it actually was.
I liked it enough, but I didn't love it, ergo the 3 stars.
The book is made up of four points of view: Doro and Marco (although his voice is heard mostly in the epilogue), hippies of sorts who lived in a commune; their son, Serge, who's pretending to finish a Math PhD, but is working as an analyst in London, making lots of money playing on the stock market; his sister Clara, three years his senior and who works as a primary school teacher in Doncaster.
I enjoyed some of the musings on the life in the commune, the youth's idealism and strong convictions. I also liked the juxtaposition of the poorer, working class, Doncaster, with the rich, fancy London. Sometimes, Lewycka was bogged down in too many pedagogic details about trading shares and the financial markets - I was bored.
There were all sort of side plots and little mysteries. At times, I lost track, of who was who and how they were connected to the story.
For an easy read, this seemed much longer than it actually was.
I liked it enough, but I didn't love it, ergo the 3 stars.
This was fun but not 'laugh out loud' funny as the book jacket reviews suggested. I did look forward to finding time to read it and spent a few lunch hours with it rather than browsing online...
I must be too loose with my stars, but this was certainly a 5. Really well written with lots of very sharp and funny references that will please you even if you're not a mathematician or computer scientist who has lived in Yorkshire during the 70s/80s/90s.
Marina Lewycka catches a lovely picture that never crosses the line into sentimentality: all real people set against that crazy backdrop. Guilt/regrets/success, all screamingly and laugh out loud funny. [Spoiler] It's a happy ever after story too.
I once knew Marina when lived in Leeds and loved her first book. I think this one trumps it by some distance, though. I wonder if she's a bit pissed off that John Lanchester chose to write a novel about high-finance shenanigans at pretty much the same time ... ?
Marina Lewycka catches a lovely picture that never crosses the line into sentimentality: all real people set against that crazy backdrop. Guilt/regrets/success, all screamingly and laugh out loud funny. [Spoiler] It's a happy ever after story too.
I once knew Marina when lived in Leeds and loved her first book. I think this one trumps it by some distance, though. I wonder if she's a bit pissed off that John Lanchester chose to write a novel about high-finance shenanigans at pretty much the same time ... ?
enjoyed this black comic look at the financial crisis of 2008 through the eyes of a commune family from the 1960's to the crisis felt however that the book was still missing a little something thats why only 3 stars