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A review by kawai
The Pugilist at Rest by Thom Jones
3.0
I expected more bass on the critical reviews of this (as well as the Goodreads average rating). The writing is certainly engaging, with momentum in every story and a variety of colloquial styles and voices (at times similar to Denis Johnson in 'Jesus' Son', at times similar to Wells Tower's first-person stories, at times completely its own thing).
However, I found some of the subject matter stale (such as the Marine Vietnam War experience--man, have I read a lifetime's worth of books on THAT), and the narrative voices seemed to wallow in the most stereotypically 'masculine' perspectives on sex, violence, and spirituality. Women are either little more than sperm banks and punching bags, or else so lustfully aggressive it's hard not to read them as a male's projected fantasy.
Having said that, for many readers that are either a) unfamiliar with the aforementioned authors whom this work echoes or b) happy to read more and more and more about the Vietnam War or c) don't mind the stereotypically masculine preoccupations of these narrators, there's tons here to be happy with. It just didn't work for me.
However, I found some of the subject matter stale (such as the Marine Vietnam War experience--man, have I read a lifetime's worth of books on THAT), and the narrative voices seemed to wallow in the most stereotypically 'masculine' perspectives on sex, violence, and spirituality. Women are either little more than sperm banks and punching bags, or else so lustfully aggressive it's hard not to read them as a male's projected fantasy.
Having said that, for many readers that are either a) unfamiliar with the aforementioned authors whom this work echoes or b) happy to read more and more and more about the Vietnam War or c) don't mind the stereotypically masculine preoccupations of these narrators, there's tons here to be happy with. It just didn't work for me.