What the Manolo Is…
By Manolo the ShoebloggerManolo says, it is Tuesday, time to see what the Manolo is…
On the one of the hands, the writing in this book Netherland is beautiful, subtle, and evocative. On the other of the hands, the characters are unsympathetic, and ultimately for the Manolo unbelievable, and the plot is the closest thing to nonthingness. The Manolo suspects that if this book had been set in, say, the Kansas City instead of the Manhattan, it would not have been named one of the New York Times Bestest Books Ever of the year 2008.
July 14th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
I couldn’t agree more about Netherland. When I started reading I thought I was going to love it, but by the end was slogging through, feeling irritated all the while. A big disappointment.
The book I’d read just before was Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin. Quite the opposite. The simplest writing imaginable, the simplest plot — and yet, when you’ve read the last page, you feel (or at least I felt) a great emotional wallop that makes you realize it wasn’t so simple after all. Lovely.
July 14th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Many thanks to the Kagoo for these observations. You may be certain that the Manolo will soon be reading Brooklyn.