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Donald Glover recommended The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in Books (curated)
The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated The Kitchen Daughter in Books
Oct 7, 2020
It isn't often that I say "I couldn't put this one down" but its the truth about this one! The author grabs the reader at the very start, with her main character Ginny. And while the "magic realism" part could have been too much, it is tempered nicely with the reality that Ginny is trying to cope with. That, together with the recipes that Ginny cooks up (which bring on the ghosts) would make one think Joanne Harris meets Mark Haddon. You can read my full review here https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2013/07/25/comfort-foods-and-curious-phenomena/
ClareR (5542 KP) rated The Porpoise in Books
Nov 6, 2019
The last book of Mark Haddon’s I read was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - and this is absolutely NOTHING like that. This novel is set in two time periods: modern day and Ancient Greece. Haddon has used the story of Apollonius and Shakespeare’s Pericles and worked them into both timelines. I hadn’t read anything about either of these stories to be honest, but after a quick look on the internet (thank you Wikipedia!) I felt a little better informed - although I do think that you would be able to read the book perfectly well without any knowledge of either Apollonius or Pericles.
This is not a comfortable read at all - abuse and incest feature strongly throughout the modern timeline (in the style of all good Greek Tragedies!). I did think about not continuing with the book at one point because I tend to avoid books with these themes, but the story really drew me in, particularly in the Greek timeline.
The way in which we initially move from modern day to Ancient Greece, using the yacht ‘The Porpoise’ to achieve this, was really cleverly done, I thought. The small parts which featured Shakespeare and his Pericles writing partner George Wilkins, seemed to be only loosely connected, but enjoyable nonetheless.
All in all, I really enjoyed this. I’m glad I stuck with it, because especially (but not exclusively!) in the case of the incest storyline, we really do see the strength of women, even though the men in their lives would want them to be cowed and obedient.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.
This is not a comfortable read at all - abuse and incest feature strongly throughout the modern timeline (in the style of all good Greek Tragedies!). I did think about not continuing with the book at one point because I tend to avoid books with these themes, but the story really drew me in, particularly in the Greek timeline.
The way in which we initially move from modern day to Ancient Greece, using the yacht ‘The Porpoise’ to achieve this, was really cleverly done, I thought. The small parts which featured Shakespeare and his Pericles writing partner George Wilkins, seemed to be only loosely connected, but enjoyable nonetheless.
All in all, I really enjoyed this. I’m glad I stuck with it, because especially (but not exclusively!) in the case of the incest storyline, we really do see the strength of women, even though the men in their lives would want them to be cowed and obedient.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.