Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics); Open market ed edition (September 1, 1995), Omnibus, 640pp / ISBN 0140252622
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 
Read: December 20-21, 2009
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:
Sharon Rabbitte is single, pregnant, and living in Dublin, and as her stomach grows, her situation elicits a wide range of responses from her family and community.
Notes:
- Liked it a bit better than The Commitments, maybe because it focused more on individual characters than a whole group. Though it did encompass a group– a family, I mean. But it was mostly focused on Sharon and her father.
- It was hard to like the characters. I mean, I was fascinated with their life and I practically devoured the book, but they aren’t the sort of people I’d know in real life or even really WANT to know in real life. The people in The Snapper aren’t always perfect, they’re instead sort of…hyper-real people?
- I can’t help but compare it to my experiences with Joyce’s books: I don’t like the characters as in I-want-to-be-their-friends like, but I do enjoy reading about them. Because they’re so real. If that makes sense?
Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics); Open market ed edition (September 1, 1995), Omnibus, 640pp / ISBN 0140252622
Genre: Fiction
Rating:
Read: December 21-23, 2009
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:
Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. is unemployed, spending his days alone and miserable. When his best friend, Bimbo, also gets laid off, they keep busy by being miserable together. Things seem to look up when they buy a decrepit fish-and-chip van and go into business, selling cheap grub to the drunk and the hungry–and keeping one step ahead of the environmental health officers.Set during the heady days of Ireland’s brief, euphoric truimphs in the 1990 World cup, The Van is a tender and hilarious tale of male friendship and family life.
Notes:
- Again there’s this weird super-reality that’s technically boring stuff (going to the bathroom, going to the library, watching TV) but it’s still somehow fascinating to read about. I think the writing must be really fantastic to pull that off!
- On the other hand, this one made me really uncomfortable, mostly because of Jimmy Sr’s leering at young women. Not that he did anything, really, but it reminds me of old dudes who leer at me and that’s gross.
- Basically I think The Snapper and The Van is full of stuff that people think and do but that normally aren’t put into books. So it’s interesting to read them because you get that feeling of “oh, so this is what people did in Ireland in the early 1990s. Cool.” But on the other hand it’s kind of like “wtf did I just read? Did I really just spend an hour reading about some dude making french fries in a van?”
- Also it just kind of cuts off at the end! With no solid resolution! Just BOOM. Done.
- Is there a sequel after this? What the heck happens to the Rabbitte family afterwards? I want to know!
Publication: HarperCollins e-books (May 23, 2006), ebook, 270pp on a Sony Reader
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Rating: 
Read: December 25, 2009
Source: Bought Continue reading »
Loading ...
