Yes, some writers play deliberate downbeat, probably looking for an evenness of tone; kind of like the literary equivalent of modal music. It's a clever trick, sustaining that for 80 or 90 thousand words, but it must be very boring to write. Normal People is essentially a rites of passage novel - ho hum - but I think it ultimately fails because what is needed is an engagement with the characters: you have like or loathe them. Insipid and self-possessed doesn't really cut the mustard. The great rites of passage novels - Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn. Treasure Island, Catcher In The Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, A High Wind in Jamaica and so on - have that 'grab' about them and you are transported to that other place and time.

This is no literary work of art that's for sure. I'd never say that. There's more about this book that I didn't like than I did like, yet it made me want to continue this drab story, and that in itself is what exceeded my expectations. I wish the spotlighting of emotional distress/mental health weren't such a dull extreme, like it never quite crossed the line, yet it was obvious. It dabbled for a bit with it and then just beat around the bush most of the time and that bothered me as well. I think it'd have been much better had it crossed lines but than it wouldn't have such it's melancholy tone that I appreciated so much. Inner turmoil and appreciation for the irony that Normal People explains perfectly that no one is quite normal.

I hadn't thought about it in that way; I was waiting for it to become something more, but of course that wasn't the writer's intention. It did strike me that a writer can get caught between writing from direct experience and writing as a witness - and it felt that those lines were blurred.

LanDroid wrote:
KevinMcCabe recommends Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky in another thread.

If I'm going to take on Dostoevsky I'm going with The Brothers Karamazov or The Idiot. Crime and Punishment strikes me as a mismatch for high summer.

Knowing how hard it is to sustain discussions of books (easy to sustain arguments), I'd always lean toward shorter fiction. I was thinking of rereading Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. It's about a Catholic priest who has fathered a child. I'm sure I didn't fathom it well when I first read it. It is a very serious book about love and religion.

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There's a heatwave in the northeastern U.S. I could go for something from this eclectic list of summer reads:

https://www.vulture.com/2016/07/best-beach-reads.html

DWill wrote:Knowing how hard it is to sustain discussions of books (easy to sustain arguments), I'd always lean toward shorter fiction. I was thinking of rereading Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. It's about a Catholic priest who has fathered a child. I'm sure I didn't fathom it well when I first read it. It is a very serious book about love and religion.

Graham Greene is an important writer but his early work, like this, was fairly reactionary. His attempt at defining evil leads him to defend the Catholic Church against the Mexican revolution. It took him a long time to cast off the training and world view that he was inculcated with during his long service in the British Diplomatic and Intelligence Service, and even longer to escape the shackles of Catholicism. He is a fascinating writer.

Hello Everyone!!! I am new to Booktalk.org and would like to contribute to the discussion by bringing my own book to the table. It's called Street Racing Club. amazon.com/Street-Racing-Terrence-Jayly ... 1092259317

Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham is certainly worth reading.

The Painted room by Lounis Tiar. Best book I read from the last 5 years!