Shotgun Lovesongs centres around five school friends meeting up again for a wedding in their hometown after going their different ways. Kip is a successful and impetuous financier returning home and craving recognition from the locals; Lee is a Bon Iver-esque musician, famous for his lonely and lo-fi first album recorded in a barn but now regretting his fame; Ronny is a former rodeo star and recovering alcoholic with a damaged past; while Beth and Henry are a long-married couple running the family farm and struggling […]
A dark and claustrophobic novel about self-image, art and co-dependency.
Grotesque and self-absorbed characters? Check. Inventive and prevalent profanity? Check. A dark and fearless sense of humour? Check. Gratuitous and queasy sex scenes? Check. There can be no doubt; we are diving deep into Irvine Welsh territory. But while some aspects of Welsh’s work haven’t changed, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins breaks new ground for the author. It is his first novel to only feature point-of-view narration from female characters, and also his first novel from a fully American perspective. It’s a raucous ride through the […]
A witty and satirical take on social networking, society and privacy.
The Circle is the world’s biggest social network. Part Google, part Facebook and all encompassing, it’s a seemingly benevolent force that everybody is signed up with, and the workplace to aspire to. So when Mae Holland is offered a job, it isn’t hard to see why she’s so enamoured with it, rising her way up the food chain and buying into everything that entails. There are tell-tale signs that the company might have more power and reach than necessary, but she brushes them off, even […]
A Beautifully Frustrating Read
Tell the Wolves I’m Home is the first-person narrative of June Elbus, a shy and standoffish fourteen-year-old living in late 1980s New York City suburbs. She idolizes her Uncle Finn, whom is her only friend and confidant, and she is completely crushed when he dies of AIDS, a still unknown disease at that point save the damning stigma to the gay community. She feels completely alone in the world until she meets Toby, a friend of Finn who shared a similar closeness and bond. As […]
No Frills
This book was on many Best lists in the year it was published. Published two years after Room, it would be tough not to say Donoghue’s utterly excellent novel didn’t influence McCleen, as here we are with another narrator who also happens to be a damaged child with no concept of the real world she happens to live in. There though, all comparisons end. Judith’s mother died shortly after giving birth to her and she has been raised by her father alone. As devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, Judith […]
Likeness? More like Highly Unlikely
Tana French made a lot of noise when her debut novel, In The Woods, hit shelves seven years ago. I finally read it last year and really enjoyed it. So much so that I bought the follow up novel almost right away but have only just read it. One of the joys of owning a Kindle and living with a bibliophile who has covered every available wall space of the flat with books is I’m always spoilt for choice. So that’s part of the reason for the delay in […]
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