Every year that I've followed the Tournament of Books, a big part of the fun for me has been discovering at least one new-to-me author that I adore. Well, I just finished the 12th book of the shortlist, and I'm sad to say I've not yet found that discovery this year. Not that I don't like some of the books--I loved Dept. of Speculation and All the Birds, Singing, but I read those before the longlist was released, so they don't count as a ToB discovery. Given that I'm not big on war lit and have heard lots of "meh" about the Sarah Waters, that leaves me only with the Marlon James, whom I've read before and have been aware of so he wouldn't count as a discovery, and Elena Ferrante. I'm counting on you, Ferrante.
As for this book? You can pretty much read the review I wrote of another ToB finalist. I have the same opinion about this one. And may I just add that, just like it's not fun to be the one sober person in a crowd of drunks, reading about people doing lots of drugs and drinking ends up to be awfully boring. There's a long--looooooong--section of that in this book, and that was only the beginning of my problems.
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