foggy_rosamund 's review for:

Batlava Lake by Adam Mars-Jones

1.0

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Officially my last read of 2022, and unfortunately not a good one! I really enjoyed Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, and Batlava Lake has some superficial similarities: both have an unintellectual narrator who is good at his job but struggles to see the realities of the world around him and his relationships. But where Box Hill is compelling and moving, Batlava Lake is simply a mess. The story meanders around the life of Barry, our narrator, and his thoughts on civil engineering. He's working in Albania with the British Army in 1999, following the war. The focus of the story is mostly Barry's pretty uninteresting thoughts about his ex-wife, his friends, his engineering work. There is an underlying plot about the situation in Albania and the atrocities of war, but these are barely touched on until a rushed explanation at the end. It's a poorly structured narrative, and very disappointing. I'm just glad it wasn't any longer.