novel

The third of three books I have by Jonathan Tropper from Mom. As predicted, I ripped through them in a week. I liked this book a lot. A large number of literally-laugh-out-loud parts that I laughed out loud to.

I currently have enough empirical data to state Tropper's style is first person narration of a guy who has had someone close to him die, has a screwed-up-in-some-way family, and is trying in some way to get his life back together in a way where he can move forward. 

In this book, yup, that's the plot. The narrator's wife died a year before and he is still grieving. He is rather sucking at moving on, despite his screwed up family attempts to help him. He has a twin sister, another little sister, an actress mom and a doctor dad. Things aren't particularly clean, though, as he's more than a little odd, even before he met his now deceased wife, his family is screwed up in odd ways (but still family), and, well, as the book shows so well about human nature, sometimes you just want to keep the pain, wrap yourself in it, and use that cloak of pain to keep everyone else away.

The book has enough truth in it about human nature and how we are all screwed up that I suspect anyone reading it will find himself in the book somewhere. Or maybe discover something new about human nature (as I did: that guys will trim their pubic hairs to make their penises look bigger. Who knew?).

This is another one of those books my mom bought and I had around, so I figured I would go ahead and read it. It is the first of three books I have by Jonathan Tropper, having read nothing about the book or by this author before.

I was delightfully surprised by this book. It was tragic and amusing and entertaining and funny all. I really enjoyed the book. 

The basic plot is a guy has a crappy childhood in a small town where basketball is king, has no connection to his widowed dad, has no connection to his basketball-star older brother, moves away, writes a book about said small town (exposing everything, making up a lot of things), becomes a success with said book, and returns to the town 17 years later. 

Hilarity ensues. 

The book is written in the first person from the male perspective, in a light, self-effacing way. I enjoyed the book a lot, and lit in immediately to the second of three Tropper books I have from Mom.

Sound bite from the book that I keep coming back to: "you know [a past love] was true love when it hurts, time doesn't heal the pain, and it's too late."

Recommended. Fast read. 

Okay, this book.

Right, this book.

I have no idea why I have this book. I have tried to read this book three times. This time was the fourth time, and I guess that the fourth time is a charm. And, hey! I managed to finish it! Go me!

I couldn't stand this book the first three times I started this book. Aaaaaaaaaaand, well, once I managed to read to about a third of the say in, I was okay enough with it to finish it. Finally.

Right, so this book is part of the Inspector Rebus series. It was clear enough that reading the rest of the books isn't really required, which I appreciated. I didn't care for the writing style, unsurprisingly. I liked that I knew the areas (-ish) of the book. The plot was okay, and the mystery mysterious enough to be interesting. Enough clues, but not too many to make the plot obvious. It had that going for it.

I didn't like this book, so, unsurprisingly, I don't recommend this book. Maybe someone else thinks differently.

Pre-book notes

Mom bought this book when she was on her Indian writers kick. I have no idea what to expect.

Post-book

Okay, this book was completely and totally not one I would pick up on my own. If Mom hadn't bought it in such a format that I would have it on hand, I wouldn't have read it. She was on an Indian writers kick, and read a large number of authors from India, this book and this author being one of her many.

The story is told in two interleaved parts, one from a first person point of view of a major in the Pakistani army, the other from a third person point of view of a narrator. The story is somewhat confusing at the beginning as the two parts intertwine, but totally clears up as the story progresses. I absolutely adored the way the author would tell of an incidental fact or odd coincidence in the story, then a bit later show how it was incredibly relevant in the story. I chuckled a large number of times, pleased when I caught the references.

I didn't catch some of the humour, and many of the references were lost on me, but I was delighted by the book. Totally outside of the books I normally read, and recommended.