(no subject)
I was hoping for better things from Meg Rosoff and How I Live Now, which is another in my list of YA books I'm trying. Straight away, I can certainly like and admire the quality of her writing style but having said that I found some things annoying which got in my way and irked. So, from the viewpoint of a grumpy old reader, several decades older than the intended readership, here are some of my carps:
1. I may have missed something but I can't understand why it should be set in 1962-3. This was one of the UK's coldest winters ever and I thought this would be significant but it doesn't seem to be. But H (main protagonist) is forever falling into the sea, getting wet through and having to dry off in Finn's inadequate fishing hut. I'm not sure he would actually survive a wetting in the North Sea at that particular time in history.
2. I can just about stand a character raising an eyebrow once in the course of a book but MR lets Finn do it several times.
3. I guessed too early on what was happening.
4. Back to 1962 in East Anglia. I know what it was like because I was there and it simply wasn't as dim and dreary and post-war as MR makes it. St Oswald's is more like a poor quality independent school than a minor public school. Matriculation had long given way to GCEs. The food in all four of the schools I went to was at least reasonable and sometimes very good and it's untrue to say, as H does: ... but the habit of mean. depressing food lingered in school kitchens throughout the land. My husband says the food at all his schools (around this time) was fantastic. The setting of the book would have been much more realistic for me if MR had pinpointed just St Oswald's as horrible and dreary with terrible food rather than typical of the whole of Britain.
5. I also don't get why H had to start and finish his story aged 100.
But it is an interesting quite atmospheric story, well told, if rather repetitive, and I know the majority of readers wouldn't care two hoots about the above points. Most of the reviews I've read have been by adults and I'm trying to track down some mid teens readers to see what they think.
Two other books: Justin Cartwright's The Promise of Happiness started last night and, as far as the first twenty pages, so far so good; and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan most of which I read on the train to London today. I usually like IM and this is no exception. And I do like shortish books occasionally. Makes me feel I'm reading A LOT.
1. I may have missed something but I can't understand why it should be set in 1962-3. This was one of the UK's coldest winters ever and I thought this would be significant but it doesn't seem to be. But H (main protagonist) is forever falling into the sea, getting wet through and having to dry off in Finn's inadequate fishing hut. I'm not sure he would actually survive a wetting in the North Sea at that particular time in history.
2. I can just about stand a character raising an eyebrow once in the course of a book but MR lets Finn do it several times.
3. I guessed too early on what was happening.
4. Back to 1962 in East Anglia. I know what it was like because I was there and it simply wasn't as dim and dreary and post-war as MR makes it. St Oswald's is more like a poor quality independent school than a minor public school. Matriculation had long given way to GCEs. The food in all four of the schools I went to was at least reasonable and sometimes very good and it's untrue to say, as H does: ... but the habit of mean. depressing food lingered in school kitchens throughout the land. My husband says the food at all his schools (around this time) was fantastic. The setting of the book would have been much more realistic for me if MR had pinpointed just St Oswald's as horrible and dreary with terrible food rather than typical of the whole of Britain.
5. I also don't get why H had to start and finish his story aged 100.
But it is an interesting quite atmospheric story, well told, if rather repetitive, and I know the majority of readers wouldn't care two hoots about the above points. Most of the reviews I've read have been by adults and I'm trying to track down some mid teens readers to see what they think.
Two other books: Justin Cartwright's The Promise of Happiness started last night and, as far as the first twenty pages, so far so good; and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan most of which I read on the train to London today. I usually like IM and this is no exception. And I do like shortish books occasionally. Makes me feel I'm reading A LOT.