Plot Synopsis: Sixteen year old Hazel is living with an incurable type of cancer. An experimental treatment has kept it from worsening, but Hazel's quality of life is hampered by requiring special breathing apparatuses and dwelling on the impact her inevitable death will have on her parents. When she attends a cancer support group, she meets newcomer Augustus Waters, a handsome, funny, all-American teenage boy. Together, they begin living each day like it's their last best day. Until it is.
Literary Analysis/Personal Reaction: Goodreads' readers gave this book a whopping 4.55 rating (260,000+ raters!) and this book has received some prestigious awards, too. The novel, written from Hazel's own point of view, is perfect for a teen audience. Correction: it is perfect for a FEMALE teen audience. Once again, I'm suckered into reading another book with a major cheese factor. There are two reasons why this book is so cheesy:
1. Augustus Waters likes to read. And he's sensitive to the feelings of others. Ugh. Really?! I'm tired of these unrealistic teenage boys marketed to teenage girls through popular adolescent literature. Like Four in Divergent or Peeta/Gale in The Hunger Games, we have a strong female lead who bends to the whims of these awkwardly sensitive boys. I'm all for romantic interests, but I expect them to be REALISTIC. A teenage boy like Augustus, who reads bloody, violent books, would NOT read (let alone re-read) Hazel's favorite book ("An Imperial Affliction"...the title alone would make any real boy run in the opposite direction). Secondly, Augustus goes out of his way to impress Hazel, but due to the fact that these actions are related to reading this book, it's unrealistic and....well...cringe-worthy.
2. The Fault in our Stars is another book where an author talks about their love of books vicariously through their protagonist. I don't want to read a book where every fucking protagonist is a bookworm who thinks glorious thoughts about writing and reading. I get it, John Green, you love books and you want some semblance of yourself in your characters. But as a reader, it's sickening, like watching a movie about characters making a movie. It's weird...annoying, even. The fact that half of this book focuses on cancer and the other half focuses on Hazel and Augustus' journey to discover what happens to characters in "An Imperial Affliction" is just ridiculous. Nobody cares about characters of a made-up book within the book they're reading.
My overall feeling about the novel is that it wouldn't have received so many awards and 5/5 star ratings if it weren't for the ending of the novel. I mean, it's a book about teens with cancer. As a reader, you do sympathize with the concerns of the characters: Hazel says she feels like a grenade ready to go off, that her parents live in fear every day and that at some point, she's going to die (BOOM!). Grab a pack of tissues and be prepared to cry as you read this book. You will almost enjoy the cheesy moments since during the other moments, you'll be crying. It's these intensely emotional, insightful sections that give the book its great ratings/awards. After readers have had a good cry at the cathartic, emotional conclusion to the story, I think they forget all about the awkwardness of the book as a whole. However, I look at the novel as a whole and I gotta say - the cheese factor really impacted my overall satisfaction with the story.
Final Rating: 6/10 - Insightful, easy prose, and an interesting subject make it an enjoyable read. However, the cheesy, unrealistic plot points and characters are nauseating and ruin some of the fun of this book.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Plot Synopsis: Fortysomething Pandora has a pretty good life in Iowa. She's married to Fletcher, a talented carpenter (though his business isn't profitable), and has two generally good step-children. She even has a thriving business that has landed her on the cover of some prominent magazines. However, her life begins to change when her older brother, Edison, comes for a two month visit. As siblings with a B-list famous father, they grew close during their childhood. But as Edison arrives at Pandora's home clocking in at 400 pounds, no one can truly tackle head-on the elephant in the room. Edison's weight and grandiose attitude disrupt the family in more ways than one. Pandora is left to drastically change her life to change Edison's by moving into an apartment with her brother to make him lose the pounds. Will Edison manage to get down to a healthy 163 lbs? And will Pandora's family handle the crush of big brother in town?
Literary Analysis/Personal Reaction: I previously read Shriver's famous We Need To Talk About Kevin. I'm actually disappointed that I did not review it here on Literati, but I would have definitely rated that book a 10/10. It was excellent. So when I found out the premise of Big Brother, I knew it was a book I wanted to read. Shriver gives an interesting perspective on obesity and the American relationship to food through Pandora's narration. I thought it was very insightful how she notes that we love putting food in our mouths, that it's instinct, and yet we've "forgotten how to eat." We don't know how much is too much until it is too late. And she considers how psychological eating really is - how when someone has gained 10 lbs, what's another bag of chips and one more pound? Can anyone really tell the difference between weighing 120 and 121 lbs? Despite the stigma of being overweight, our society pushes individuals to eat more than they should. And yet, it's shameful that we can only criticize obese people behind their backs rather than confronting the issue head-on without worry that we will hurt their feelings and continue their further downward eating spiral.
But this isn't just a book about obesity and weight loss. The family dynamic is central to the success of this book. Really, what would you do if an obnoxious, yet close family member hit rock bottom and came by for a rather long visit? Would you turn them away? Would you look the other way as they ate everything you had in the refrigerator and cupboards? Would you make it your mission to help them lose the weight? Pandora decides on doing the latter, but not without sacrifices.
There are some downsides to this novel, however. Edison is not a likable character. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be, but I found him downright unbearable and couldn't understand why in the world Pandora would stick up for him. Oh, that's right, Pandora is also somewhat unlikable. Edison and Pandora's father, Travis, is a washed up TV actor. He had a semi-hit show back when they were kids and the siblings remember those halcyon days of being semi-famous. The amount of space that Shriver devotes to describing the family's "claim to fame" is rather annoying. Readers will not be interested in reading about a television show that never existed, nor particular episode plot lines. I understand that Shriver is using these details as a metaphor for Pandora and Edison's dynamic, but it's humdrum and would best be left out.
Back to Edison. In his teenage years, he left home to become a jazz pianist. This just seemed too kooky for me, but worse, Shriver uses jazz lingo all over Edison's dialogue and it's AWFUL, "ya dig?" Seriously, nobody talks that way, even contemporary jazz musicians do not talk that way. It's cliche and frustrating to read over and over. I recognize the importance of giving characters a unique voice, but this was downright ridiculous. Even worse, Edison rants about all the jazz musicians he's played with (okay for character building to show that he's a pompous ass...) but Pandora then discusses everything she fucking knows about jazz from Edison. UGH!!! I get it, he's into jazz, she's trying to understand her brother's jazz world, but my god - enough is enough!
The ending - no, I won't spoil it for you - is somewhat short and surprising. But satisfying. Very satisfying. That is all I will say about that :-)
Final Score: 8/10 - Generally, a very good book, easy to read, with a few annoying faults that don't really take away from the overall enjoyment of the story.
Literary Analysis/Personal Reaction: I previously read Shriver's famous We Need To Talk About Kevin. I'm actually disappointed that I did not review it here on Literati, but I would have definitely rated that book a 10/10. It was excellent. So when I found out the premise of Big Brother, I knew it was a book I wanted to read. Shriver gives an interesting perspective on obesity and the American relationship to food through Pandora's narration. I thought it was very insightful how she notes that we love putting food in our mouths, that it's instinct, and yet we've "forgotten how to eat." We don't know how much is too much until it is too late. And she considers how psychological eating really is - how when someone has gained 10 lbs, what's another bag of chips and one more pound? Can anyone really tell the difference between weighing 120 and 121 lbs? Despite the stigma of being overweight, our society pushes individuals to eat more than they should. And yet, it's shameful that we can only criticize obese people behind their backs rather than confronting the issue head-on without worry that we will hurt their feelings and continue their further downward eating spiral.
But this isn't just a book about obesity and weight loss. The family dynamic is central to the success of this book. Really, what would you do if an obnoxious, yet close family member hit rock bottom and came by for a rather long visit? Would you turn them away? Would you look the other way as they ate everything you had in the refrigerator and cupboards? Would you make it your mission to help them lose the weight? Pandora decides on doing the latter, but not without sacrifices.
There are some downsides to this novel, however. Edison is not a likable character. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be, but I found him downright unbearable and couldn't understand why in the world Pandora would stick up for him. Oh, that's right, Pandora is also somewhat unlikable. Edison and Pandora's father, Travis, is a washed up TV actor. He had a semi-hit show back when they were kids and the siblings remember those halcyon days of being semi-famous. The amount of space that Shriver devotes to describing the family's "claim to fame" is rather annoying. Readers will not be interested in reading about a television show that never existed, nor particular episode plot lines. I understand that Shriver is using these details as a metaphor for Pandora and Edison's dynamic, but it's humdrum and would best be left out.
Back to Edison. In his teenage years, he left home to become a jazz pianist. This just seemed too kooky for me, but worse, Shriver uses jazz lingo all over Edison's dialogue and it's AWFUL, "ya dig?" Seriously, nobody talks that way, even contemporary jazz musicians do not talk that way. It's cliche and frustrating to read over and over. I recognize the importance of giving characters a unique voice, but this was downright ridiculous. Even worse, Edison rants about all the jazz musicians he's played with (okay for character building to show that he's a pompous ass...) but Pandora then discusses everything she fucking knows about jazz from Edison. UGH!!! I get it, he's into jazz, she's trying to understand her brother's jazz world, but my god - enough is enough!
The ending - no, I won't spoil it for you - is somewhat short and surprising. But satisfying. Very satisfying. That is all I will say about that :-)
Final Score: 8/10 - Generally, a very good book, easy to read, with a few annoying faults that don't really take away from the overall enjoyment of the story.
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