I’m terribly envious of people who get to read for a living. It must be nice being a literary critic. I am horribly behind with all my cosies. Mind you that said, I have been very naughty, I have started both Lila Dares ‘Polished Off’ and ‘Naked Heat’ (the Castle spin off) but got completely waylaid from both by ‘White Tiger’ by Aravind Adiga. It’s a super book which won the man Booker prize in 2008, it’s hardly cosy in fact it is unflinching in its depiction of poverty. bizarrely I found myself rooting for the amoral murderer (the narrator), who believes that the murder is the only escape from the poverty trap into which he was born. Highly unusual in that the book is in the form of letters addressed to the Chinese Premier it’s really gripping. Adiga is particularly skillful in creating rounded, believable characters, the victim isn’t someone we despise and both murderer and victim have their flaws. Set in India it highlights the problems with corruption in the country and the ending manages to satisfy whilst leaving the reader thinking. Very accomplished. The structure is unusual and excellent, the prose flows, the sentence structure is elegantly simple and the descriptive passages are just beautiful. I was surprised to find that it was Adiga’s first novel. So whilst it wasn’t my usual cosy formula I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think a change is good sometimes isn’t it?
As I said I’ve already started Lila Dare ‘Polished Off’, double-booking is something I do a lot and I’ve been reading that one in bed, it is a hoot so far, it’s set at a beauty pageant so it’s really good fun. Season 3 of ‘Castle’ has just finished showing over here so I’ll be reading Naked Heat to get my fix. No ‘Bones’, no ‘Castle’ thank goodness there’s ‘Body of Proof’!
Tomorrow, all being well, I’ll be wittering about a show I just discovered and the August release list from Obsidian. We’ve been having probs with our router so sometimes I can’t get online. 😦 Technology eh?
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