--- Stewart Wilson <
stewart@stewartwilson.com> wrote:
> I read DIE A LITTLE after THE SONG IS YOU
and
> QUEENPIN. It's true that the
> lyricism you describe was present in DIE, but I
was
> very disappointed by the
> book as a whole. Perhaps if I had read it first
I
> would have liked it more
> and SONG less. I found that many of the passages
in
> the book, particularly
> descriptions of period items and decor read like
the
> narrator was in the
> 21st century presenting to a 21st century
reader,
> but that shouldn't have
> been the case. Also I don't think the
narrator
> could have presented all of
> the goings on she did without knowing what
was
> happening sooner. She (the
> narrator) came off as dumb, and uninteresting.
By
> contrast, in THE SONG IS
> YOU and QUEENPIN none of those problems
were
> present. Alan Guthrie said
> that Abbott has been improving between books.
I
> would say that she improved
> massively between the first two. QUEENPIN is
told
> in a very different style
> from SONG, I don't know if it was an
improvement.
> SONG is my favourite book
> so far this year. QUEENPIN is excellent
too.
>
Cool. I totally disagree. Die A Little had some first novel
problems. What I really liked about it is that in terms of
the narrator's sister-in-law (trying not to spoil things
here) it ends where most writers would have begun it. So the
story is told from the point of a witness rather than the
nosy and tired sleuth model.
But in The Song Is You, that device really doesn't work. I
didn't believe for one second that the protagonist would even
care about something where his involvement was so tenuous.
And the resolution -- again, I'm trying not to spoil anything
here -- was so trite and easy as to be silly. I was severely
disappointed by Song.
But that's what makes horseracing . . .
William
Essays and Ramblings
<http://www.williamahearn.com>
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