Scan barcode
A review by jacki_f
Me and Mr. Booker by Cory Taylor
3.0
Martha is sixteen and lives in a small Australian town. While I'm not sure when the book was set, my impression was that it was probably in the 1980s. Her parents have split, she is precocious and bored, desperate to escape. An English couple aged in their 30s come to live in the town and befriend her and her mother. To Martha the fact that they are from England makes them exotic and glamorous (she is immune to the fact that they hail from a small town on the Welsh border and his parents live in a caravan park). Martha and Mr Booker begin an affair.
This is a very well written book and I admired it tremendously but the sordid nature of their relationship and the way that everyone in the novel was so dislikeable prevented me from really loving it. This is more a reflection on me than on the book. The author captures Martha perfectly - her world-weariness and sense of sophistication, while being far less sophisticated than she realises. The insights into the Bookers - which Martha is oblivious to - are also well portrayed. A clever and memorable novel. I just wished I'd liked it more.
This is a very well written book and I admired it tremendously but the sordid nature of their relationship and the way that everyone in the novel was so dislikeable prevented me from really loving it. This is more a reflection on me than on the book. The author captures Martha perfectly - her world-weariness and sense of sophistication, while being far less sophisticated than she realises. The insights into the Bookers - which Martha is oblivious to - are also well portrayed. A clever and memorable novel. I just wished I'd liked it more.