daniel handler's adverbs
i really wanted to like this book. i absolutely adore handler's narrative voice in the lemony snicket books, and was psyched to read his latest novel for adults (not that i've read the other two). but, unfortunately, i really disliked the writing style here. the story itself was problematic for me as well, with characters drifting in and out of little vignette-y scenes (and i'd be all, which one was joe again? or muriel, or whoever), and there were a lot of weird recurring images, like magpies, and volcanoes under san francisco, and people kept saying the same lines of dialogue over and over . . . this has a big ol' "this book is awesome" blurb from dave eggers on the back, so i guess if you like dave eggers, or the extremely annoying and incredibly pretentious latest book by jonathan safran foer, you might like this too. however, i did not like it at all. by the time he started namedropping bands like the clientele (who, to clarify, i love, and felt that their appearance in this novel unfairly maligned them) in the final chapter, i was practically rolling my eyes (whcih made reading hard). *shakes fist at daniel handler*
props to the dan clowes cover though.
6 comments:
Wait! He badmouths The Clientele!? Send me the quote! Boo!
no, no!! they're one of MANY bands he suddenly starts namedropping in the last chapter (hence the eyerolling). the quotation is "the summer everyone was listening to the clientele" or something like that. i was just so annoyed with the book at that point that the sudden introduction of "look, i know about indie rock bands!" was too much to take. when i said i felt like the clientele were maligned, i meant that they were too good to be mentioned in such a crappy book. :)
haha - ok! You know he used to be a member of The Magnetic Fields, too?
yeah . . . i almsot wished he'd jsut written an indie music nerd novel, instead of stuffing it into the last chapter.
i really loved handler's "the basic eight" -- it was a very heathers-like story.
i have only read so-so reviews of this one, though... glad to hear that you echo those reviews. maybe i won't waste my time.
do read "the basic eight" if you get a chance, though.
i'm always looking for more reading material, so i'll add "basic eight" to my list. i'm intrigued by your description!!
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