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mgreer56's review
dark
funny
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kathrinpassig's review
4.0
Erste Hälfte ein großes Vergnügen, die zweite fand ich weniger überzeugend. "Drei Jahre später" ist im Film wie im Buch immer schwierig, vor allem, wenn im Abschnitt davor viel passiert ist und im Abschnitt danach auch wieder viel passiert. Aber in den drei Jahren dazwischen soll einfach nur Zeit vergangen sein.
steller0707's review
5.0
All her life Miss Hawkins has taken orders from other people, first at the orphanage, where Matron made her life miserable, then at the candy factory where she worked for forty years. Now that she has retired she doesn't know what to do with herself and so prepares her suicide.
But wait! Her co-workers have given her a five-year diary. It feels like another command - she must fulfill it!
So begins this hilarious and cleverly written 1978 Booker-nominated novel. Each day Miss Hawkins writes a challenge in the form of an already completed order which she is bound to fulfill in the next 24 hours. At first the challenges are ordinary - "Took a long walk" or "Went to buy food" - very easy to check off with her red pencil. But when she writes the challenge "Went to library and met a man" she starts setting herself increasingly urgent challenges and her five-year descent into madness begins!
But wait! Her co-workers have given her a five-year diary. It feels like another command - she must fulfill it!
So begins this hilarious and cleverly written 1978 Booker-nominated novel. Each day Miss Hawkins writes a challenge in the form of an already completed order which she is bound to fulfill in the next 24 hours. At first the challenges are ordinary - "Took a long walk" or "Went to buy food" - very easy to check off with her red pencil. But when she writes the challenge "Went to library and met a man" she starts setting herself increasingly urgent challenges and her five-year descent into madness begins!
ady_soundslike80's review
Just not feeling this right now. I Olán to revisit it at a later date. I started it and wasn’t in the mood for it. Still am not. Someday though
bookwyrm082's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
heathdurling's review
5.0
Such a funny and unusual story! I really enjoyed the way it's written. In it's simplest terms, a strange story of a suicidal old lady and an elderly gigolo.
robforteath's review
4.0
This novella is something like "Diary of a Nobody", but with decidedly anti-social twists.
It's completely hilarious through the first part, then perhaps less so as the conclusion is marched towards. The three main characters are somewhat pathetic, hopelessly lonely and stunted, and each has longed for the death of at least one other person. So we aren't cheering too hard for any of them.
This is a quick and enjoyable read -- and your own life will seem not so bad, in comparison. ;-)
It's completely hilarious through the first part, then perhaps less so as the conclusion is marched towards. The three main characters are somewhat pathetic, hopelessly lonely and stunted, and each has longed for the death of at least one other person. So we aren't cheering too hard for any of them.
This is a quick and enjoyable read -- and your own life will seem not so bad, in comparison. ;-)
persey's review
4.0
Blackly, bleakly humorous and horrifying in its depiction of desire and deprivation, of domination and the need to be loved - unfulfilled. No one is deserving, no one is even kind. A gut punch. Thoreau's "the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation" on steroids.
sero's review
dnf@25%
this is taking a weird turn i don't want to read about, so i'm noping real fast
this is taking a weird turn i don't want to read about, so i'm noping real fast
catdad77a45's review
4.0
An odd little book, shortlisted for the 1978 Booker Award, it seems more like a novel from the '50's. Although humorous, it is ultimately somewhat sad, as it depicts the dwindling fortunes (romantic and financial) of a spinsterish orphan, who after deciding to kill herself upon retirement from her dreary job in a candy factory, decides she must live in order to fill up the five year diary presented as a present upon such occasion. She meets a man with whom she begins a relationship whereby she pays him for each little romantic 'favor' - and this is where I begin to quibble. The arrangement is initially presented as strictly financial, but morphs halfway through the book inexplicably, whereby she then asserts that the money paid her gigolo is being set aside in investments for her. This makes little or no sense, since Brian would than have no incentive for carrying out his 'obligations'. My other objection is that the chapters detailing Brian's life (with his other customers, as well as his crotchety incontinent mother) take over the book - for the better - and one wonders why HE wasn't the focal point all along, rather than the dispiriting Miss Hawkins.