Huh, turns out that I've read the winner of the Best Novel Hugo before it won the award for once. Which means it's a good time to mention that I read it and loved it.
I had some really mixed feelings about that book. He dumps so much rough shit on the characters that it began to feel too intentional. I later figured that's kinda the point of the book - the great distance between our fantasies (comic book heroes beating up Hitler and getting the girl) and our ugly reality.
But it was kinda like he did it as a way to sacrifice his own idols, because all through the book you could tell he still really loved his characters and his comic books. Like maybe it was a book he just had to write? I don't know. But while I couldn't get through K&C again, it seems like he got something out of his system. I finished this book with a sigh of relief.
I enjoyed K&C okay, but this novel is 100X more compelling, the voice is so much clearer and more sympathetic. And fookin' hylarious. The plot is ridiculously baroque. He carries it off, because I think MC has dumped a bunch of ego along the way. He would have had to, to write this novel.
By the way, I HATED Mysteries of Pittsurgh. One extended masturbatory exercise. Yek. Enjoyed the Wonder Boys movie, but mostly because of the cast.
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But it was kinda like he did it as a way to sacrifice his own idols, because all through the book you could tell he still really loved his characters and his comic books. Like maybe it was a book he just had to write? I don't know. But while I couldn't get through K&C again, it seems like he got something out of his system. I finished this book with a sigh of relief.
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By the way, I HATED Mysteries of Pittsurgh. One extended masturbatory exercise. Yek. Enjoyed the Wonder Boys movie, but mostly because of the cast.
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