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A review by sloatsj
Half a Life by Darin Strauss
2.0
How can I say it but to say this book was dull? "Remarkable, lyrical and brave," as the blurbs say? "Inspiring and painfully raw?" "Haunting?" Uhhh, nope. Rather like a very tame, too-long therapy session about someone you’re sorry for but can’t get terribly whipped up about. Or even feel all that sorry for, because it's sad and shit luck and all that but where's crazed Dostoevsky when you actually need him? It's great to be introspective if you're, say, Fernando Pessoa.
I didn't like the style.
“My boys are named Beau and Shepherd and their arrival was like two hard kicks to the chest.”
“Sleep was a coating I’d been stripped of, leaving all my wiring exposed.”
I don’t know if it’s trying too hard or not trying hard enough. I don’t want to be ungenerous but the truth is I had to make myself finish. It was a fast read with plenty of one-page blurb chapters, but it lacked blood, tears, real torment and vividness.
“In fiction classes — or in the novelist-as-humble-cobbler image, writing workshops — you find that epiphany has a pretty high rate of occurrence.”
(A “high rate of occurrence?” For real?)
“But when you tell your own story honestly, that epiphany thing is rare: there is no walk, there is no fated grab. You try every fruit, or forget, losing sight of any destination. The only changes are emergencies or blessings: when you wake up, notice the surroundings, then fall back, and wander more.”
There. To me it was a bit tedious.
I didn't like the style.
“My boys are named Beau and Shepherd and their arrival was like two hard kicks to the chest.”
“Sleep was a coating I’d been stripped of, leaving all my wiring exposed.”
I don’t know if it’s trying too hard or not trying hard enough. I don’t want to be ungenerous but the truth is I had to make myself finish. It was a fast read with plenty of one-page blurb chapters, but it lacked blood, tears, real torment and vividness.
“In fiction classes — or in the novelist-as-humble-cobbler image, writing workshops — you find that epiphany has a pretty high rate of occurrence.”
(A “high rate of occurrence?” For real?)
“But when you tell your own story honestly, that epiphany thing is rare: there is no walk, there is no fated grab. You try every fruit, or forget, losing sight of any destination. The only changes are emergencies or blessings: when you wake up, notice the surroundings, then fall back, and wander more.”
There. To me it was a bit tedious.