Sunday, January 3, 2010

Two Book Reviews

I keep trying to find modern fiction readable and keep finding disappointment.  For example:


Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson.  This book won the National Book award and I cannot figure why.  It is the most poorly written novel that I have read in a long time.  Ugly sentence construction.  Faulty syntax.  Catatonic description.  And a theme so tiresome and overworked, one feels like a losing participant  in a contest to see who can consume the most hotdogs in one hour.

Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Excellent title because, when finished reading, I felt as if I had just watched 18 hours of television nonstop.  There wasn't enough wine in the house to restore my equilibrium, so I went to bed, hoping sleep would clear my mind.  It helped.

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