Monday, June 04, 2018

2018 book 92

Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry
My library hold copy of this novel came in the day before Philip Roth died, which may seem irrelevant, except that the first part of this book is apparently loosely based on an affair the author had with Roth when she was in her 20s*. So I felt a little weird about reading it--plus I am generally uninterested in books about old writers sleeping with much younger women--though it is rare to have the story be from the woman's perspective, I guess. Just when this is starting to drag (they are watching a lot of endless baseball games), a different story entirely comes into play--the story of a young Iraqi-American being detained at Heathrow. I found a lot of this to be very profound but did wish it was a little bit less obtuse. B+.

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*Side note, I got a little jolt when it was revealed the Roth character was from SQUIRREL HILL!

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