What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (2 Viewers)

The Wasp Factory was shite. Though I reckon it probably has more of an impact if you read it when you’re young, like that other overrated turd Catcher in the Rye. The Wasp Factory felt like a British version of And the Ass Saw the Angel which at least had a weird Cormac McCarthy-esque Southern Gothic, Old Testament psychedelic edge to it. I haven’t read Ass in years but don’t think it can have aged well either.
 
Is reading ass a euphemism? :D Have to differ on your Catcher... review, which I read when I was young and also recently (as an old) and it impressed me as much. But sure anyway, would be bad if we all liked the same shit.
 
It’s shite. Kid is a proto incel and if you’ve only read it as an adult it is a complete chore to get through all that whining.
well that's a point. I read it late teens, I think. I remember enjoying it, but thinking that there was something off about it.

Its definitely overrated, but I'd contend that it's not shite.
 
I’m baffled how Iain Banks couldn’t get The Player of Games published, but The Wasp Factory was not only published but championed by all sorts.
It was published in 1984! I didn't realise that - first thing I heard about Banks was him being championed when I lived in the UK in the mid-90s. I really enjoyed a lot of his non-SF books - Espedair St, Whit, The Crow Road - but now I think of it I probably read them 20+ years ago so who knows?
 
It was published in 1984! I didn't realise that - first thing I heard about Banks was him being championed when I lived in the UK in the mid-90s. I really enjoyed a lot of his non-SF books - Espedair St, Whit, The Crow Road - but now I think of it I probably read them 20+ years ago so who knows?
Yeah I read Espedair Street in the mid 90s too, enjoyed it, and had always meant to read the Wasp Factory as it was his biggie, plus there was a band called The Wasp Factory who toured Ireland and played Galway. So I was all set for a fun read. I probably went a bit hard into it up there, for this reason.
 
Hmmm, I read Seymour: An Introduction last year because it was the only one of the Glass ones I hadn't read [I read the others when I was in my early 20s, and uh]. Hard writer to read when you're a bit older, and you develop a sense of humour as regards the world. Ahem. It's all very precious - hard to know if this is how Salinger actually feels or he's gently ribbing this upper middle class milieu ... obviously the books are the template for The Royal Tenebaums... but Anderson had a wily Gene Hackman running the show.

The fact they call John Cheever "Salinger for grown-ups" slights Cheever a bit in my mind. Bullet Park, Falconer... hands down the best writer of that, eh, literary and social milieu.


Anyway, I started Warlock by Oakley Hall. Serious fun.

Almost finished a book about the YBAs by Gregor Muir. If he wasn't such an insufferable sycophant, it wouldn't be so bad. It's still a good overview of Cool Britannica, just very lacking in critical awareness.

I finished In the Dark Room by Brian Dillon the other week. Ever read a book by W.G Sebald in your life, hih? It's like he developed his writing style by reading German works in translation - Sebald, Handke, etc. It's very, very indebted to W.G Sebald. Makes one think of that Faulkner line about selling his mother for a good story. In this case, I'll sell me papa too. Still, quite well-worked in its gothic dimensions...just very portentous, and any levity is of the driest kind, almost imperceptible. Heavy, but may be worth a punt if you're interested in something more left-of-field in terms of recent Irish literature.
 
Finally got around to reading The Thing About December by Donal Ryan, been sitting on my bookshelf for about 5 years now.

Jesus it's sad stuff altogether, kind of what I expected I guess but even still... I felt he was kind of struggling to find a story after about the first third but he does find it in the end. Christ though, very upset by it. It's just so sad. Fucking Ireland man, what a place.
 
It’s shite. Kid is a proto incel and if you’ve only read it as an adult it is a complete chore to get through all that whining.
not weird at all

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