I read it a long time ago, but iirc I didn’t ask myself who was justified and who wasn’t. i read more in a mindset of “this happened and I’m being told about it”.

it depends what you care about. you know how crayola sells a simple box of 8 crayons? and also boxes with 64 and 128 and possibly even more.

if you don’t care about nuances and variations, nobody’s forcing you to upgrade.

the funny thing was, I couldn’t tear myself away from this book until the last chapter. and then all of a sudden I couldn’t be arsed. I know how it ended of, I skimmed it, but all of a sudden I just couldn’t force myself back into the state of immersion I’d been in since page 1.

and tacks himself onto the end of total strangers’ funeral cortèges.

jack London has always been excellent.

😂😂😂😂

I had the same experience as you. opened it with no expectations on whether I’d keep reading it; I was just in the mood for a really big, really longread book and chose it.

I was ishmael’s willing follower from the second paragraph on. he got me by absolutely nailing his own pissy-mindedness, and never let go of me.

The War Zone by Alexander Ive-blanked-his-last-name-in-self-defence. it was not a bad book, or badly written. I got the feeling his motives were genuine and imp he writes well .

it just one that made me want to play my “yes, this kind of ugly is plausible, but I don’t want to look at it” card. I’m a pretty stoical reader and I don’t begrudge the space it takes up in my head, exactly. but I don’t need what it told me in there.

response in support, although personally I didn’t think it was well-written enough to qualify for this thread😉

lol, one of my perverse amusements is how much more likely you are to find porn on the salvation army bookshelves, compared with secular thrift stores. it’s like when a friend told me “if you want to get randomly laid … church groups!”

Any other book Recs like this and killers of the flower moon?! This might be my new favorite genre.

the executioners song by Norman Mailer is remarkable.

some people just aren’t into some kinds of funny. Sedaris or Burroughs are two of mine. I appreciate both of them, but not because they amuse me.

Wodehouse pmuch is his verbal goofiness though. if that isn’t your thing, there probably won’t be much else in his work to reward you.

some people just aren’t into some kinds of funny. Sedaris or Burroughs are two of mine. I appreciate both of them, but not because they amuse me.

Wodehouse pmuch is his verbal goofiness though. if that isn’t your thing, there probably won’t be much else in his work to reward you.

I’ve read a fair bit of Alice Munro. I agree with everything her admirers say about her. I just don’t like reading her.

Same with Marilyne Robinson, which probably says more about me.

I’ve read a fair bit of Alice Munro. I agree with everything her admirers say about her. I just don’t like reading her.

Same with Marilyne Robinson, which probably says more about me.

I mean no disrespect to the non-haters - or to Morrie himself - by this, but … Tuesdays with Morrie.

colour me jaded and/or cynical, but gah. talk about trite.

I mean no disrespect to the non-haters - or to Morrie himself - by this, but … Tuesdays with Morrie.

colour me jaded and/or cynical, but gah. talk about trite.

hello . you don’t know me, but we are soulmates.

I like Christopher brookmyre’s Jack parlabane books for this. His MC is scrappy and contrarian, not because of some dark past but because he just is. he’s a narky wee bollix because he was born that way. and he has ordinary friendships and a normal marriage, and he knows it.

or all of that in the same gaptoothed package. yeah, only a handful of people have written kids I could buy (you know what I mean). Anne Tyler and, unexpectedly, John Updike both come to mind.