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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Read in Ireland to get into the spirit of things. Little did I know it’d be such a downer.
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rather nutty cast of characters but not in an Oscar Wilde-type of way, more like a Rebecca-type of way (there's even a nutty servant). Even though Farrell wrote this many years after the post-WWI period setting it feels like a slice of history. Since the reader sees everything through the Major's eyes you really do start to feel caught between the two sides in Ireland's struggle for independence.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s pretty boring. It was sometimes a chore to pick this book up, specially in the first half. I only finished it because I’m committed to reading all the Booker winners.
Couldn't finish it. Might pick it up and try again later. In my quest to read all the Booker Prize Winners, I am giving myself one "pass" since this was awarded later :) Will come back to it... Some day.
Review from Book Club:
Okay. Full disclosure, I cannot finish this book. The Lost Booker Prize is lost on me! I made it through about 220 pages before throwing it in today. I do have some questions for those of you who were able to read it, though.
What are your overall impressions of the characters in the novel?
I felt that even though we spend so much time with the Major, and learn so much about the other characters through his 'filter', we don't really know much about the Major himself. There are clearly glimpses in to his past, and he obviously has some post-traumatic stress going on, but I never felt like I got to "know" the major. Which made me lose interest.
Would you like to spend a night in the Majestic?
The Majestic Hotel might have actually been my favorite "character" in this novel. The Imperial Bar "boiling" with cats, all the Old Lady residents scowling at the Army, the crumbling tennis courts, and a rotting sheep's head in the washbasin. This place sounds in turn endearing, quirky and downright horrifying. I loved Farrell's descriptions of the hotel.
How did you feel about the "framing" of the novel?
I thought it was very interesting the way Farrell including news blurbs and insights to the escalating crime and unrest. Some of the blurbs were very bizarre (Young Girl Gets Hair Chopped Off) and sinister. I did wonder about where they were supposed to be coming from though. Were these supposed to be just notifications, or actual headlines, or ones that Farrell made up? I liked what it added, but didn't quite understand it.
So, for those of you who read this one, KUDOS. You are more committed to this project than I am! For those of you who started, but did not finish, what did you think? Why did you stop reading? Would you pick it up and finish it later? Why or why not?
Review from Book Club:
Okay. Full disclosure, I cannot finish this book. The Lost Booker Prize is lost on me! I made it through about 220 pages before throwing it in today. I do have some questions for those of you who were able to read it, though.
What are your overall impressions of the characters in the novel?
I felt that even though we spend so much time with the Major, and learn so much about the other characters through his 'filter', we don't really know much about the Major himself. There are clearly glimpses in to his past, and he obviously has some post-traumatic stress going on, but I never felt like I got to "know" the major. Which made me lose interest.
Would you like to spend a night in the Majestic?
The Majestic Hotel might have actually been my favorite "character" in this novel. The Imperial Bar "boiling" with cats, all the Old Lady residents scowling at the Army, the crumbling tennis courts, and a rotting sheep's head in the washbasin. This place sounds in turn endearing, quirky and downright horrifying. I loved Farrell's descriptions of the hotel.
How did you feel about the "framing" of the novel?
I thought it was very interesting the way Farrell including news blurbs and insights to the escalating crime and unrest. Some of the blurbs were very bizarre (Young Girl Gets Hair Chopped Off) and sinister. I did wonder about where they were supposed to be coming from though. Were these supposed to be just notifications, or actual headlines, or ones that Farrell made up? I liked what it added, but didn't quite understand it.
So, for those of you who read this one, KUDOS. You are more committed to this project than I am! For those of you who started, but did not finish, what did you think? Why did you stop reading? Would you pick it up and finish it later? Why or why not?
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
This is an eccentric sort of book, a good deal of humour mixed up with quiet melancholy, which was a speciality of the English between the wars.
It’s set in Ireland in 1921/22 when Brendan Archer, still suffering from his years in the trenches, visits Ireland to see his fiancée. It had been a disjointed wartime romance, he barely knows her and relationship quickly fizzles out but he is captivated by his fiancée’s family's hotel - the fabulous, crumbling Majestic. The family are Anglo-Irish and being 1921 there is restlessness and violence around, as well as terrible poverty.
The Majestic I suppose is a metaphor for the British presence in Ireland - ridiculously overblown, on a huge gothic scale and unwelcome to the local population. It is marvellously eccentric, falling apart and with a strange cast of characters, including a troupe of old ladies who live there permanently and a feral colony of cats that inhabit the top floor. Conditions become worse as the heating packs up and ceilings leak. Everyone has to shuffle round bedrooms in an Alice in Wonderland type fashion.
It is the first book of the Empire trilogy, and I probably enjoyed the other two more, being on a grander more ambitious scale. Farrell was an amazingly talented writer, he wrote his books in the 1970s as historical fiction, but the with a credible voice of the past . It’s very sad he died as young as he did.
It’s set in Ireland in 1921/22 when Brendan Archer, still suffering from his years in the trenches, visits Ireland to see his fiancée. It had been a disjointed wartime romance, he barely knows her and relationship quickly fizzles out but he is captivated by his fiancée’s family's hotel - the fabulous, crumbling Majestic. The family are Anglo-Irish and being 1921 there is restlessness and violence around, as well as terrible poverty.
The Majestic I suppose is a metaphor for the British presence in Ireland - ridiculously overblown, on a huge gothic scale and unwelcome to the local population. It is marvellously eccentric, falling apart and with a strange cast of characters, including a troupe of old ladies who live there permanently and a feral colony of cats that inhabit the top floor. Conditions become worse as the heating packs up and ceilings leak. Everyone has to shuffle round bedrooms in an Alice in Wonderland type fashion.
It is the first book of the Empire trilogy, and I probably enjoyed the other two more, being on a grander more ambitious scale. Farrell was an amazingly talented writer, he wrote his books in the 1970s as historical fiction, but the with a credible voice of the past . It’s very sad he died as young as he did.
So excellent! Has a really great understated dry humour the whole way through, though still incredibly sad at times. I laughed so much, Farrell is great at putting together some absolutely bizzare images.
Only a few times have I ever finished a book, handed it to Mrs., and said "you gotta read this." This is one such time. Dizzyingly sad, funny, nightmarish, and enchanting.
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes