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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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.
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.
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
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.
I gave up on this half-way through. The premise is interesting, but the relationship dynamic between the two main characters was making me cringe and want to throw things.