Book 5 was ‘How to Write a Novel in a Year’by Louise Doughty.It began as a c0lumn in the Daily Telegraph and had so many responses it was converted into a book.The book features a variety of exercises and techniques designed to help with generating and developing ideas when writing a novel.I followed some of the exercises but after a while I was enjoying the actual reading of the book so much that I decided to read it in full and then return to the exercises later.
The writing style is perfect for this type of book,it is wry and engaging and although I already knew of Louise Doughty as an author(indeed that’s why I decided to buy the book in the first place),I definitely want to read one of her novels soon.
Number 6 was ‘Special Topics in Calamity Physics’ by Marisha Pessl.I was drawn to it by the interesting sleeve design and the glowing review from Audrey Niffeneger and as it was only £1 I quickly purchased it and began reading it the same day.It’s a lengthy novel and a greatly ambitious one,and the style is highly unique.Narrated by the bizarrely names Blue Van Der Meer the book is full of references to largely obscure texts read by the protagonist,and is layed out like a syllabus,with each chapter being named after a great work of literature.It is startling,perplexing and by the second half certainly gripping.Although I found the very end a little too neat for my tastes and was slightly irritated that there were still so many unanswered questions,overall this book was staggeringly ambitious for a debut novel and definitely worth reading.
Book 7 was ‘The Position’by Meg Wolitzer and centres around what happens in the 1970s when the four Mellows children discover their parents have written a very popular sex guide with graphic illustrations of their acts.The book then skips foward to the present and updates the reader on how each of the siblings has grown up and the impact their parents lives have had on them.The dynamics of the family have heavy similarities with those of ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’and while I found the book very entertaining initially after a while I struggled to get through it.The problem may be that I found many of the characters hard to empathise with,in particular the Mother who appears to be nothing beyond a vaguely drawn woman who is incredibly vain and self obsessed.In general this book failed for me as it seemed to take a decent idea and make it generic,largely because the characters resembled those of so many independent films so closely.
Well the current reads seem to have been rather diverse which will hopefully make for more interesting reading!Next is likely to be a Batman graphic novel and a couple of children’s books.
Tags: Books, Louise Doughty, Marisha Pessl, Meg Wolitzer.
